Averroes. Line engraving by D. Cunego, 1785, after A. R. Men

This profile study focuses on Averroes (Ibn Rushd), identifiable by his turban and intense, downward gaze. In the original fresco composition, he is shown peering over the shoulder of Pythagoras, symbolizing the transmission of knowledge across cultures. This 18th-century print was produced by Domenico Cunego after a drawing by Anton Raphael Mengs, documenting a specific figure from Raphael's Vatican masterpiece.

Averroes was a pivotal figure in the transmission of Aristotelian and Neoplatonic thought from the Islamic world to the Latin West. His commentaries were foundational to Renaissance natural philosophy and were frequently cited by Hermetic and Neoplatonic thinkers such as Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola.