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Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0 · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileThis 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.
18 AVERROES ARABS RAPHAEL SANCTIUS Vrb. pinx. in aed. Vaticanis Cav. Ant. Raph. Mengs delin. Dom. Cunego sculp. Romæ 1785
Translation
18 Averroes the Arab Raphael Sanzio of Urbino painted [this] in the Vatican buildings Cavalier Anton Raphael Mengs drew [this]. Domenico Cunego engraved [this] at Rome, 1785.
Averroes
Averroes was the preeminent commentator on Aristotle whose works significantly influenced the development of Western natural philosophy and Renaissance thought.
Object
Fresco
portrait
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0
https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/2d/b1/55bd3b2368d958bf6f7aa1bd3ea8.jpg Gallery: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/V0000252.html Wellcome Collection gallery (2018-03-23): https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pk98awyk CC-BY-4.0
3092 × 2464 px
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 2, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.