Philosophy (Salvator Rosa)

The artist has depicted himself in this three-quarter-length portrait wearing a black scholar's cap over his long and untidy hair, against a stormy grey sky.Rosa wished to increase his artistic reputation by becoming known as a painter of philosophical subjects, rather than landscapes less valued in the hierarchy of genres.Rosa published his anthology of sayings, Il Teatro della Politica, in 1669; this included entries on the virtue of silence.Though the work was long thought to be a self-portrait due to an inscription on the reverse of the painting, recent scholarship has suggested that it was intended as a personification of philosophy.A different self-portrait by Rosa, dating to c. 1645 and in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, depicts the artist with a bushy beard and dark hair; another of 1647 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art similarly has a long beard and hair, while a third in Detroit, of c. 1650–1660, is similar to a painting of Rosa dressed as a soldier in Siena, c. 1640–1649.
Salvator Rosa , Philosophy , c. 1645 , National Gallery , London
Salvator Rosa , Poetry , 1640–1641, Wadsworth Atheneum , Hartford, Connecticut
Salvator RosaNational GalleryBaroquepersonificationphilosophyStobaeushierarchy of genresWadsworth AtheneumHartford, ConnecticutGiovanni Carlo de' Medicipendant paintingMarquis of LansdowneBowood HouseHenry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 6th Marquess of Lansdowne5th MarquessA different self-portraitMusée des Beaux-Arts de StrasbourgMetropolitan Museum of ArtSelf-portraitDetroit Institute of ArtsTorture of PrometheusHuman FragilityAllegory of FortuneThe Dream of AeneasLandscape with Tobias and the AngelCatarina or La Fille du BanditJules PerrotCesare PugniAntônio Carlos Gomes