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Lot Essay
Pittacus of Mytilene (c. 640-c. 570 BC) was a statesman and philosopher, honored as one of the Seven Sages of Greece. After helping overthrow the tyrant Melanchrus, he was elected aisymnetes of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, a position he held for ten years. Renowned for his pursuit of political stability and legal reform, Pittacus earned a lasting reputation for his wisdom and moderation.
This painting is one of Luca Giordano’s highly realistic portraits of philosophers, closely following the tradition of Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652), whose depictions of philosophers, saints and hermits were popularized in seventeenth-century Naples. Giordano produced these half-length figures largely in the middle decades of the century. As noted by Nicola Spinosa, Giordano’s philosophers can be divided into two phases: those from the 1650s are directly related to Ribera’s dry and vigorous types of circa 1630, while in the 1660s, Giordano began painting from life, using models he found in the streets of Naples (N. Spinosa, in Luca Giordano 1634-1705, exhibition catalogue, Naples, 2001, p. 68). The present painting is datable to the 1660s, with other examples from this period including Crates, dated around 1660 (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte, Rome; fig. 1) and The fish eater, also dated circa 1660 (Gemäldegalerie, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna; fig. 2).
Two other autograph versions of this composition are known, one in the Kunsthalle Hamburg (inv. no. HK-782) and another formerly with the Walpole Gallery (see O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano: nuove ricerche e indediti, Naples 2003, pp. 37, 28, no. A012). There are very slight differences in Pittacus's depiction in each painting, but they all include the same astronomical symbols on the piece of paper he holds: the symbol of Venus at upper left, a sun-moon opposition chart to the right, and a horoscope diagram of the twelve empty houses at lower left. The Hamburg picture, however, also includes a signature above the horoscope diagram.
The identification of this philosopher has been subject to some debate. The Hamburg picture was first identified as Archimedes by Creighton Gilbert in 1961 (C. Gilbert, Baroque Paintings of Naples, exhibition catalogue, Sarasota, 1961, no. 31). It was then described as Heraclitus by Alfred Hentzen in 1964, citing the astronomical symbols on the sheet of paper (A. Hentzen, ‘Erwerbungen für die Gemälde-Galerie im Jahre 1963‘, Jahrbuch d. Hamburger Kunstsammlungen, IX, 1964, pp. 165-167). In 1966, Oreste Ferrari and Giuseppe Scavizzi proposed Democritus, pointing to the mocking expression, but they later corrected their identification to Pittacus in 1992 (O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano. L'opera completa, Naples, 1992, I, p. 255, no. A27, II, p. 476, fig. 97).
We are grateful to Giuseppe Scavizzi for endorsing the attribution to Giordano on the basis of photographs and for proposing a date in the 1660s (written communication 6 December 2025).
This painting is one of Luca Giordano’s highly realistic portraits of philosophers, closely following the tradition of Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652), whose depictions of philosophers, saints and hermits were popularized in seventeenth-century Naples. Giordano produced these half-length figures largely in the middle decades of the century. As noted by Nicola Spinosa, Giordano’s philosophers can be divided into two phases: those from the 1650s are directly related to Ribera’s dry and vigorous types of circa 1630, while in the 1660s, Giordano began painting from life, using models he found in the streets of Naples (N. Spinosa, in Luca Giordano 1634-1705, exhibition catalogue, Naples, 2001, p. 68). The present painting is datable to the 1660s, with other examples from this period including Crates, dated around 1660 (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte, Rome; fig. 1) and The fish eater, also dated circa 1660 (Gemäldegalerie, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna; fig. 2).
Two other autograph versions of this composition are known, one in the Kunsthalle Hamburg (inv. no. HK-782) and another formerly with the Walpole Gallery (see O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano: nuove ricerche e indediti, Naples 2003, pp. 37, 28, no. A012). There are very slight differences in Pittacus's depiction in each painting, but they all include the same astronomical symbols on the piece of paper he holds: the symbol of Venus at upper left, a sun-moon opposition chart to the right, and a horoscope diagram of the twelve empty houses at lower left. The Hamburg picture, however, also includes a signature above the horoscope diagram.
The identification of this philosopher has been subject to some debate. The Hamburg picture was first identified as Archimedes by Creighton Gilbert in 1961 (C. Gilbert, Baroque Paintings of Naples, exhibition catalogue, Sarasota, 1961, no. 31). It was then described as Heraclitus by Alfred Hentzen in 1964, citing the astronomical symbols on the sheet of paper (A. Hentzen, ‘Erwerbungen für die Gemälde-Galerie im Jahre 1963‘, Jahrbuch d. Hamburger Kunstsammlungen, IX, 1964, pp. 165-167). In 1966, Oreste Ferrari and Giuseppe Scavizzi proposed Democritus, pointing to the mocking expression, but they later corrected their identification to Pittacus in 1992 (O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano. L'opera completa, Naples, 1992, I, p. 255, no. A27, II, p. 476, fig. 97).
We are grateful to Giuseppe Scavizzi for endorsing the attribution to Giordano on the basis of photographs and for proposing a date in the 1660s (written communication 6 December 2025).