Self-Portrait

Salvator Rosa

ca. 1647 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

One of the most fascinating and complex personalities in seventeenth-century Italy, Salvator Rosa was an accomplished painter, printmaker, poet, and actor. Here he shows himself inscribing a skull with the Greek words “Behold, whither, eventually.” The wreath of cypress is an emblem of mourning, while on the table sits a book by the Roman stoic philosopher Seneca. According to the inscription, the picture was a present for Rosa’s friend Giovanni Battista Ricciardi, a gifted man of letters from Pisa.

Artist

Salvator Rosa

Date

ca. 1647

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Bequest of Mary L. Harrison, 1921