Rijksmuseum

Heraclitus

Date

1628

Medium

canvas, oil paint (paint)

Institution

Rijksmuseum

The Greek sage Heraclitus was known as the crying philosopher because he mourned the folly of mankind, while his opposite Democritus (the nearby pendant) could only laugh at it. Here Heraclitus looks like a melancholy old man. Downcast, he leans on a terrestrial globe and gestures dismissively with his left hand, as if to say: ‘All is for nought, the world will come to nothing.’

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