Diogenes Seeking an Honest Man
Medium
Etching on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 21.9 × 30.6 cm (8 5/8 × 12 1/16 in.); Plate: 22 × 31 cm (8 11/16 × 12 1/4 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
30477
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
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 stumble...
About the Artist
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione · 1609–1664
Versatile and eclectic artist open to foreign influence which was unusual for an Italian artist of his time. Some of his best-known works are somewhat fantastical. He was court painter at Mantua from 1648. Comment on works: Religious; Landscapes; Animals; Mythology.