Diogenes Casting Away His Bowl
1661–62
Salvator Rosa Italian, 1615-1673
Italy
Diogenes di Sinope (413-323 B.C.), an ascetic philosopher of Athens and Corinth, is said to have eschewed worldly goods to such an extent that he threw away his drinking bowl upon seeing a youth drinking water from cupped hands. This famous etching by Salvator Rosa reproduces (in reverse) the artist’s painting of the same subject in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (1651/52).
Etching and drypoint on dark cream laid paper