The School of Athens key, engraving by Volpato after Raphael

What it is

This is an engraved key sheet titled Effigies cognitae, in Scholae Atheniensis Tabula depictae. It shows numbered sketches of heads and figures from Raphael's School of Athens, and each is matched to a printed list of names below. The engraving is by G. Volpato after Raphael. The Wellcome Collection in London holds it. The key lets a viewer identify who is who in the painting's central group, and Plato is one of the figures it names.

Why it matters

Raphael's painting brings many thinkers together in one imagined scene. A key like this shows that viewers needed help to recognise them, so the figures were treated as a set of identities to learn. Engravings like this one copied famous paintings so that they could reach many readers and viewers. The sheet tells us how Plato was being presented to people who had not seen the original.

Look closer

• Why would a key of names be printed beside the sketches, and what does that suggest about who the audience was?
• Which figures are shown as sketches, and how are they arranged on the sheet?
• What does the key leave out, such as what each figure is doing or why the painting was made?