Pescia had
it placed in the Pieve of his native city after the death of
Raffaello, he betook himself to Rome. Having arrived there, he found
that most of the rooms in the Palace had been painted, or were still
being painted, by a number of masters. To be precise, he saw that
there was one room in which a scene had been finished by Piero della
Francesca; Luca da Cortona had brought one wall nearly to
completion; and Don Pietro[25] della Gatta, Abbot of S. Clemente
at Arezzo, had begun some works there. Bramantino, the Milanese, had
likewise painted many figures, which were mostly portraits from
life, and were held to be very beautiful. After his arrival,
therefore, having been received very warmly by Pope Julius,
Raffaello began in the Camera della Segnatura a scene of the
theologians reconciling Philosophy and Astrology with Theology:
wherein are portraits of all the sages in the world, disputing in
various ways. Standing apart are some astrologers, who have made
various kinds of figures and characters of geomancy and astrology on
some little tablets, which they send to the Evangelists by certain
very beautiful angels; and these Evangelists are expounding them.
Among them is Diogenes with his cup, lying on the steps, and lost in
thought, a figure very well conceived, which, for its beauty and the
characteristic negligence of its dress, is worthy to be extolled.
There, also, are Aristotle and Plato, one with the Timaeus in his
hand, the other with the Ethics; and round them, in a circle, is a
great school of philosophers. Nor is it possible to express the
beauty of those astrologers and geometricians who are drawing a vast
number of figures and characters with compasses on tablets: among
whom, in the figure of a young man, shapely and handsome, who is
throwing out his arms in admiration, and inclining his head, is the
portrait of Federigo II, Duke of Mantua, who was then in Rome. There
is also a figure that is stooping to the ground, holding in its hand
a pair of compasses, with which it is making a circle on a tablet:
this is said to be the architect Bramante, and it is no less the man
himself than if he were alive, so well is it drawn. Beside a figure
with its back turned and holding a globe of the heavens in its hand,
is the portrait of Zoroaster; and next to him is Raffaello, the
master of the work, who made his own portrait by means of a mirror,
in a youthful head with an air of great modesty, filled with a
pleasi