The purpose of this essay is to examine the relationship between Christian and humanistic themes within the four large frescoes that Raphael painted in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican Palace. Through this examination I plan to demonstrate how the interrelation of these two seemingly contradictory themes was critical for the political aims and papal identity of the patron, Pope Julius II. I will argue that Julius commissioned the decoration of the stanza as a means of asserting his papal authority and presenting an identification of himself as the new Julius Caesar who ushered in a new Roman Golden Age. I will discuss the composition and iconography of the frescoes, the life of Pope Julius II, and Roman humanism in the Early Modern Period, in an attempt to prove that the representation and collaboration of the themes of humanism and Christianity were essential to Julius’s political strategies and identity-formation.

The papacies of Julius II and Leo X witnessed the continuing efforts of philosophers struggling toward the concept of prisca theologia, or "ancient theology,” as well as its implications for concordia, or the search for a reconciliation between non-Christian, pagan wisdom and the orthodox beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. This thesis will explore the Vatican's relationship with some ancient Egyptian and Egyptianizing artifacts and motifs acquired under Popes Julius II and Leo X and the use of these objects in terms of the conceptual formulation of the prisca theologia and concordia. Specifically, I am interested in how these popes used material culture to further understand and propagate complex theological concepts. Beyond simply acquiring such objects, their physical positioning and arrangement within specific spaces and in proximity to other objects make possible nuanced dialogs between the objects themselves, the spaces they occupy, and their intended viewership.