Heraclitus and Democritus

Salvator Rosa painted this round canvas in Florence in the later 1640s, for his friend Francesco Cordini, a publisher and dealer. The subject is an old pairing from antiquity. Heraclitus, the philosopher who wept at the folly and brevity of human life, and Democritus, who laughed at it. On the right the old Heraclitus has his head in his hand, crying. Rosa made Democritus young and set him higher in the circle, and he turns out of the picture with a grin, as if inviting us to share the joke. Rosa, himself a satirist, was not hiding which side he took. The tondo did not stay in Florence for long. Archduke Ferdinand Charles of Tyrol bought it, and in 1663 it was moved from Innsbruck to the Habsburg collection at Ambras Castle.