Print, 'Diogenes Casting Away his Bowl', Salvator Rosa, Rome, 1661-1662

Although none of Salvator Rosa's etchings are dated, this etching is traditionally ascribed to a date around 1662 as it appears mentioned in letter of Rosa dated 11 March 1662. The present work belongs to Rosa’s group of larger etchings executed in the 1660s and depicts an episode of Diogenes’ life related by Diogenes Laertius (Lives of Eminent Philosophers): Diogenes cast away his last possession, a bowl, upon seeing a young boy drinking with his hand. Diogenes was an Ancient philosopher who was greatly revered by the Stoics for his indifference to worldly concerns and for his self-sufficiency, independence, moral and intellectual courage, exemplified by the gesture depicted in the present print. According to Wallace (1979), Diogenes may have been Rosa’s personal hero since the artist had dedicated many more works to Diogenes than any other subjects. Rosa’s ideals followed closely Diogenes’ insistence on complete freedom while such intellectual subject matter publicised Rosa’s stature as a learned painter and peintre-philosophe.

This print, along with its companion, Democritus (See 24448A and 23200:4), repeats an ambitious painting executed some ten years earlier (Copenhagen, Statens Museums for Kunst) and another, quite different in the composition and arranged in an horizontal format, La selva dei filosofi (Florence, galleria Palatina, Pitti Palace) executed in the early 1640s. The pair of prints is characterised by an asymmetrical composition with an emphasis on stormy skies and trees’ trunks, which reflect the austere nature of the protagonist. Rosa would often repeat his most ambitious and complex paintings in etching to make sure that they received maximum exposure. As a matter of fact, print making was the most effective way of disseminating a design thanks to the possibility of multiplying the images, which made them available to a wider audience.

The original copperplate is preserved at the Calcografia Nazionale in Rome (Inv. 747j).

Salvator Rosa (1615-1673) was born in Arenella near Naples and soon absorbed the energy and violence informing Neapolitan art, characteristics which would be apparent throughout his career. Rosa was a prolific etcher but he also produced drawings and paintings. He particularly favoured subjects taken from the classical Antiquity, such as in the present case. The print shows here the Ancient philosopher Diogenes casting away his last possession, his bowl, upon seeing a young boy drinking from his hand. This story was for Rosa an example of indifference to worldly concerns and of self-sufficiency, a philosophy of life he deeply admired.

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