AVERROËS IN THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS

Abstract

The European Renaissance was a revolutionary movement in human history. In this era of the rebirth of humanity, a great number of valuable artworks were created. One of these masterpieces is the magnificent wall painting The School of Athens, by Raphael, which is also known as a "visualization of knowledge." Raphael depicted almost all ancient Greek philosophers in this fresco. The painting displays one noticeable figure among the scholars: the philosopher/scientist Averroës from Andalusia. Western thought was greatly influenced by Averroës' philosophy. Averroës was as extraordinary a physician as he was a philosopher. His medical works presented novel concepts such as the discovery of the photoreceptor function of the retina, describing symptoms and signs of Parkinson's disease, and proposing a cardiac/vascular origin of cerebral stroke. In this article, we aimed to introduce Averroës' works and his contribution to neuroscience in the context of art, framed particularly with Raphael's masterwork The School of Athens.