Plato Holding "Res Publica" in His Hands

The philosopher sits on the floor with a finger pressed to his temple and his eyes lowered, an old man lost in thought. Look at the books. The one beneath his elbow is marked De Repub., for the Republic, his dialogue about the ideal state, and a volume in the pile behind him reads Dialog, for the dialogues. The titles are in Latin, the language of learned books when this canvas was painted around 1720 for the library of Prince Eugene of Savoy, the Habsburg field marshal, in his Upper Belvedere. The museum names Giuseppe Carlo Pedretti, a young Bolognese painter at the time, as the artist. Its record gives Giacomo Antonio Boni, another painter from Bologna, as the earlier attribution, and the Belvedere's own photo caption still carries Boni's name.