Self-Portrait

Salvator Rosa painted this himself as a philosopher around 1645, holding a tablet inscribed with Latin words: "Be quiet, unless your speech be better than silence." The dark figure emerges from shadow, dressed as a scholar rather than as the landscape painter he was known to be.

Rosa created this work for Filippo Niccolini, a friend from his circle in Florence who served the Medici family. The artist was ambitious to be recognized for more than his wild landscapes and battle scenes. He wanted to be seen as a painter of serious philosophical subjects.

Recent scholarship suggests this was originally conceived as a personification of Philosophy rather than a self-portrait, despite an old inscription on the back. It may have been intended as a companion to a 1640 painting of Poetry, now in Hartford, which shows Rosa's partner Lucrezia. The painting hangs at the National Gallery in London.