Art Institute of Chicago

Diogenes Seeking an Honest Man

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione

Date

1645–47

Medium

Etching on cream laid paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Diogenes the Cynic, a contemporary of Plato, is famous for having been an outspoken and contentious critic of convention. Believing that virtue was better revealed through action than theory, he maintained an ascetic lifestyle while deliberately acting out against what he found to be irrational societal customs. In this etching, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione showed Diogenes searching by lamplight, during the daytime, for a rational man. Instead of finding a man, the shoeless philosopher stumbles upon bones, vegetables, decaying bits of statues, and scavenging owls and monkeys.

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.