"School of Athens" - The grouping to the right of center
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Without invoking any symbolic imagery, two of this figures SCREAM as being in accordance with two busts that I recognize, immediately.
I don't know of anyone with such a characteristically long, pointed beard as ZENO OF CITIUM. This was a well known bust, and Zeno's features are strong.
Screen Shot 2021-05-23 at 10.42.41 PM.png
The same is true of the wide nose and shaggy face of ANTISTHENES.
Screen Shot 2021-05-23 at 10.43.50 PM.png
In another post, I suppose that the couple pointing to the bald, longe-bearded man in orange strike me as Crates of Thebes and his wife Hipparchia, so the inclusion of Zeno and Antisthenes would strongly indicate that these are Cynics and Stoics.
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If I didn't know better, I'd say that stoic MARCUS AURELIUS had his arm around the shoulder of ZENO OF CITIUM, the founder of Stoicism. Perhaps it's even PYRRHO?
Screen Shot 2021-05-23 at 10.50.55 PM.png
At the same time, I think those two characters are also also distant candidates for Lucretius and Epicurus. I'd guess Zeno and Marcus Aurelius, as an impulse.
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The figure's baldness is interesting, and also severely narrows our search.
I only know of several Greek figures that are depicted as balding.
Hippocrates:Archimedes:
Xenocrates:
There appear to be ten bald, or balding men in the School of Athens. Three of whom are Socrates, Plato, and Diogenes, so that leaves seven unidentified bald men:
a. Screen Shot 2021-05-24 at 5.06.41 PM.png
b. Screen Shot 2021-05-24 at 5.07.56 PM.png
c. Screen Shot 2021-05-24 at 5.08.00 PM.png
d. Screen Shot 2021-05-24 at 5.06.29 PM.png
e. Screen Shot 2021-05-24 at 5.06.13 PM.png
f. Screen Shot 2021-05-24 at 5.06.25 PM.png
g. Screen Shot 2021-05-24 at 5.06.18 PM.png
Nothing jumps out at me. I think though, that we can cross-reference the bald and balding figures, because there are significantly fewer of them, both in the painting, and in the history of philosophers, who generally seem to sport a shaggy hairstyle.
