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Lot Essay
The present lot is generally identified with the Democritus and Heraclitus painted by Rubens in Valladolid - where the Spanish court was then situated - in June and early July of 1603 to make up and supplement a gift of paintings from Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, to the Duke of Lerma, the first minister of King Philip III of Spain. Rubens had entered the service of Duke Vincenzo soon after his arrival in Italy in 1600; the story of his journey to Spain, as envoy and courier of the Ducal gifts to the Spanish King and his chief courtiers, is well documented by letters from Rubens and the Duke's ambassador in Spain, preserved in the Gonzaga archives.
Rubens had had to restore the majority of the paintings - copies by Pietro Facchetti - which made up Lerma's gift as they had been damaged by rain. Lerma is reported to have taken these to be originals at the presentation which took place on 13 July. The event was fully described to Duke Vincenzo by his ambassador. The Democritus and Heraclitus had been placed in a room apart together with other smaller paintings, and, no doubt as a result of his appreciation of it, Lerma commissioned of Rubens his equestrian portrait, which masterpiece by Rubens has hung in the Prado for over thirty years.
The Democritus and Heraclitus was listed in the Lerma inventories of September 1603 and July/August 1607. The measurements are of an upright picture of slightly larger dimensions, but Jaff has argued that they were inverted, a plausible point as such a subject would require an oblong rather than an upright format. McGrath records Burchard's concern that the support is wood - probably oak - but rejects his suggestion that the artist had brought the painting with him from Antwerp. While it is true that Rubens most often used canvas as a support during years in Italy (the support, too, of the Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma), he also used copper, oak and (famously) slate.
In this rapidly executed work, Rubens adopts a pronounced Flemish manner reminiscent of the handling of the Conversion of Saint Paul also on oak of about this date (M. Jaff, Catalogo Completo Rubens, 1989, no. 30) and the Self-Portrait with Friends at Cologne (ibid., no. 24).
Democritus of Abdera (for whom see also lot 21) and Heraclitus of Ephesus were famous Greek philosophers. The former is known as the laughing philosopher, because he held that cheerfulness should be one of the most desirable goals in life. While he laughed at the follies and vanity of mankind, Heraclitus, referred to by Lucan as the crying philosopher, wept at human frailty. The choice of subject may have been considered appropriate as a gift to Lerma, whose wife had recently died. Rubens may have recalled the story of how Democritus in order to console Darius - mourning the death of his wife - offered to bring her back to life, if Darius could identify three people who had not suffered adversity in their lives. The King's sorrow was thus soothed, when he found he was unable to do this. McGrath identifies Democritus as endowed by Rubens with a sanguine temperament, while Heraclitus is 'Saturnine and melancholic'.
McGrath has pointed out that the present work is 'the earliest Netherlandish example of the half-length formulation of the subject', and that Rubens was presumably inspired by an 'Italian variation of a lost painting' made for the study of Marcilio Ficino, the Renaissance philosopher, showing a 'Democritus and Heraclitus laughing and weeping respectively over the state of the world, symbolized as a globe'. Rubens may also have known, or known of, Bramante's treatment of Democritus and Heraclitus, half-length with a globe between them, in the Brera; this was part of a series of famous men which he executed as a fresco in the Casa Panigarola-Prinetti, Milan, circa 1490-1499 (see catalogue of the exhibition, Art in the Age of Exploration circa 1492, ed. J. Levenson, National Gallery of Art Washington, 1991, no. 128).
Perhaps to impress his Spanish hosts by his erudition, Rubens inscribed the borders of the cloaks - the pallia - worn by the two philosophers with their names in Greek letters; this was a usage soon to be described by the artist's learned, elder brother, Philip, in whose absence, however, Rubens here made a couple of spelling errors in the transcriptions, as McGrath has pointed out.
The globe on which the two philosophers lean is extensively inscribed. Dr. Jeremy Wood, who has written on the inscriptions on Rubens's drawings, and having examined the original, sees no reason why the lettering should not be by Rubens. The area displayed is the Atlantic and Arctic oceans and northern Europe.
Rubens had had to restore the majority of the paintings - copies by Pietro Facchetti - which made up Lerma's gift as they had been damaged by rain. Lerma is reported to have taken these to be originals at the presentation which took place on 13 July. The event was fully described to Duke Vincenzo by his ambassador. The Democritus and Heraclitus had been placed in a room apart together with other smaller paintings, and, no doubt as a result of his appreciation of it, Lerma commissioned of Rubens his equestrian portrait, which masterpiece by Rubens has hung in the Prado for over thirty years.
The Democritus and Heraclitus was listed in the Lerma inventories of September 1603 and July/August 1607. The measurements are of an upright picture of slightly larger dimensions, but Jaff has argued that they were inverted, a plausible point as such a subject would require an oblong rather than an upright format. McGrath records Burchard's concern that the support is wood - probably oak - but rejects his suggestion that the artist had brought the painting with him from Antwerp. While it is true that Rubens most often used canvas as a support during years in Italy (the support, too, of the Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma), he also used copper, oak and (famously) slate.
In this rapidly executed work, Rubens adopts a pronounced Flemish manner reminiscent of the handling of the Conversion of Saint Paul also on oak of about this date (M. Jaff, Catalogo Completo Rubens, 1989, no. 30) and the Self-Portrait with Friends at Cologne (ibid., no. 24).
Democritus of Abdera (for whom see also lot 21) and Heraclitus of Ephesus were famous Greek philosophers. The former is known as the laughing philosopher, because he held that cheerfulness should be one of the most desirable goals in life. While he laughed at the follies and vanity of mankind, Heraclitus, referred to by Lucan as the crying philosopher, wept at human frailty. The choice of subject may have been considered appropriate as a gift to Lerma, whose wife had recently died. Rubens may have recalled the story of how Democritus in order to console Darius - mourning the death of his wife - offered to bring her back to life, if Darius could identify three people who had not suffered adversity in their lives. The King's sorrow was thus soothed, when he found he was unable to do this. McGrath identifies Democritus as endowed by Rubens with a sanguine temperament, while Heraclitus is 'Saturnine and melancholic'.
McGrath has pointed out that the present work is 'the earliest Netherlandish example of the half-length formulation of the subject', and that Rubens was presumably inspired by an 'Italian variation of a lost painting' made for the study of Marcilio Ficino, the Renaissance philosopher, showing a 'Democritus and Heraclitus laughing and weeping respectively over the state of the world, symbolized as a globe'. Rubens may also have known, or known of, Bramante's treatment of Democritus and Heraclitus, half-length with a globe between them, in the Brera; this was part of a series of famous men which he executed as a fresco in the Casa Panigarola-Prinetti, Milan, circa 1490-1499 (see catalogue of the exhibition, Art in the Age of Exploration circa 1492, ed. J. Levenson, National Gallery of Art Washington, 1991, no. 128).
Perhaps to impress his Spanish hosts by his erudition, Rubens inscribed the borders of the cloaks - the pallia - worn by the two philosophers with their names in Greek letters; this was a usage soon to be described by the artist's learned, elder brother, Philip, in whose absence, however, Rubens here made a couple of spelling errors in the transcriptions, as McGrath has pointed out.
The globe on which the two philosophers lean is extensively inscribed. Dr. Jeremy Wood, who has written on the inscriptions on Rubens's drawings, and having examined the original, sees no reason why the lettering should not be by Rubens. The area displayed is the Atlantic and Arctic oceans and northern Europe.