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The Forest of the Philosophers

  • (after) Salvator Rosa
  • Painting
  • Oil on canvas
  • 10 3/8 x 15 1/4 in. | Framed: 16 x 20 3/4 in.
  • Yes

Artworks “after Salvator Rosa” are imitations of Rosa’s style or reproductions of his work that constitute original pieces of art in their own right.  Rosa was one of the least conventional artists of 17th-century Italy, and was adopted as a hero by painters of the Romantic movement in the later 18th and early 19th centuries.

This oil painting is a reproduction of a signed work by Salvator Rosa of about 1645 (now in the Pitti Palace, Florence). It depicts an episode from the life of Diogenes, the ancient Greek philosopher who wanted to be free of all earthly attachments. Upon seeing a boy using his hands to drink from a stream, Diogenes threw away his bowl, his last remaining possession. The philosopher, dressed in blue, appears in the center of this work, clutching his bowl in his right hand.

During the 1640s, Rosa worked in Florence. While he sought recognition as a painter of philosophical subjects, this tranquil scene with its exquisitely painted details, like the glowing light on the horizon that throws the figures and trees into darkness, shows his immense talent for landscape painting. The towering mountains in the distance and silhouetted branches in the foreground would become staple characteristics of his work.

The painting has craquelure, as shown in the photos.

Bibliography:
E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs.
D. Mallett, Index of Artists.
D.E.R. Brewington, Dictionary of Marine Artists.
I. Chilvers & H. Osborne, The Oxford Dictionary of Art.

Loc: G.B.W.R. ppuk

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