In the painting "School of Athens", why do you think Raphael chose to paint himself standing among the Greek philosophers, and to paint some of the Greek philosophers to resemble his contemporaries Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci?

Answer:
Raphael was in Florence when he received word that Pope Julius II, the same man who asked Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Ceiling, asked him to decorate apartments on the second floor of the Vatican Palace. He was hoping to outshine the Early Renaissance paintings his predecessor, Pope Alexander VI, had done in the Borgia Apartments, which sat directly below.
Explanation: