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The meshing together of different figures from history shows the symbolic nature of the worka figure alternately attributed as Diogenes the Cynic or Socrates sits on the ground, although Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates, for example, never would have been alive during the same time period. Support for the figure being Diogenes rather than Socrates has been found in the fact that he is prone, and alone, which seems to suggest Diogenes status as an antisocial Cyniche also called himself a dog. However, the painting seems to depict in chronological order in the development of ancient philosophy, of the viewer moves his or her gaze from foreground to background and from left to right. This would suggest that the figure is Socrates. The bowl besides the lying figure if it is Socrates could symbolically signify his drinking of hemlock also suggests the death of Christ. Raphael, a Neo-Platonist in his philosophy, thus gave particular importance to Socrates martyrdom (Bell 1995)

The artwork, as a glorification of the human, is sublimely Renaissance in nature, and typical of the period but it is also unique in the way that it celebrates philosophers and their intellectual arts, not simply symbolic figures of Greek

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