Salvator Rosa's Democritus and Diogenes in Copenhagen

The article places Rosa’s two paintings of philosophers within an historical context, demonstrating how their subject matter and formal devices bring together and expose a range of important themes in seventeenth-century art theory. The question of ‘the sublime’ is linked to the connection between the aesthetic and the ethical in the artist and the work of art, to the melancholic temperament and to the concept of genius as is appeared within the art theoretical context of the day. The article shows that the two philosopher-paintings may have been included amongst what Salvator Rosa himself regarded as sublime motifs. They can be interpreted as a public launch and presentation of the artist’s new perception of the artist self, which incorporated multiple identities: Stoic philosopher, poet, satirist and painter of ethical-moral (sublime) inventions.