Ein kynischer Philosoph,

um 1650/53

Material / Technology / Carrier

Leinwand

Dimensions of the object

131 x 103 cm

Displayed

Not on display

Department

Italian Painting

Genre

Painting

Inventory number

492

Acquisition

1806 aus der Galerie Düsseldorf

Stock

Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen – Alte Pinakothek München

Citation

Luca Giordano, Ein kynischer Philosoph, um 1650/53, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen – Alte Pinakothek München, URL: https://www.sammlung.pinakothek.de/en/artwork/Dn4Zy5vGaK (Last updated on 24.08.2023)

With his portraits of philosophers Luca Giordano successfully continued a fashion in Neapolitan Baroque painting that had been established a few decades earlier by Jusepe de Ribera, whom he admired. The naturalistically portrayed figure, depicting a scholar studying written documents and with a globe, is demonstratively poorly clad. This could therefore be a representative of the Cynic school of philosophers who strove to return to a natural state of existence through an ascetic lifestyle.