A Greek Inscription in a Portrait by Salvator Rosa

In the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a painting most often identified as a self-portrait by Salvator Rosa (1615 – 1673), depicting a man holding a human skull (Figure 1). The identity of the sitter has been disputed,1 though the work can be securely set in the context of the friendship between Rosa and Giovanni Battista Ricciardi (1623 – 1686), owing to an inscription.2 In fact, three inscriptions appear in the composition, and one of them, composed in classical Greek, has previously been misinterpreted. Born in Arenella, near Naples, Rosa traveled to Rome as a young man. There, in addition to painting, from 1638 he received training in poetry and satire from the court poet Antonio Abate (d. 1697), becoming an adept himself.3 A few years later, while in Florence, Rosa first encountered Ricciardi, a future professor of philosophy, who would guide Rosa in that discipline, particularly its source texts from classical Greece and Rome, over the course of a long friendship.4 Ricciardi was a bibliophile, known for his ability to locate and acquire copies of classical and other texts of interest to the literary elite of Tuscany, and Rosa occasionally served as his agent in this enterprise. In 1651, Rosa acquired for Ricciardi in Rome three Greek texts: the Adversus mathematicos by Sextus Empiricus, the Bibliotheca by Photius, and the commentary on Homer by Eustathius of Thessalonike.5 In Florence, Ricciardi participated in the Accademia dei Percossi, which Rosa founded with Lorenzo Lippi (1606 – 1665) about 1643.6 The group included, among other intellectuals, the philologists and classical scholars Carlo Roberto Dati (1619 – 1676), Andrea Cavalcanti (1610 – 1672), and Valerio Chimentelli (1620 – 1668), who had contacts with major centers for the study of antiquity in Rome and at the University of Pisa.7 This milieu would certainly have provided a suitable setting for Rosa to become conversant in Greek and Roman literature and culture. Indeed, there is noticeable selfidentification with classical antiquity among the Percossi, as Rosa describes the villa of his friend Giulio Maffei (d. 1656) at Monterufoli as “the Garden of Hesperides” and a “little Parnassus,” and casts himself and his colleagues as Greek philosophers.8 Their banquets often concluded with orations, including one titled “Encomium of the Golden Age” by Evangelista Torricelli (1608 – 1647), a noted physicist and mathematician, which borrowed heavily from classical texts,9 and a poetic composition by Niccolò Simonelli (d. 1671), an important early patron of Rosa’s work, which praises Rosa as the “Demosthenes of painting.”10 Rosa’s own literary production, situated in this context, bears out his familiarity with classical works. His satires bristle with classical allusions from a wide range of genres, some rather obscure, including direct citations in the original Latin11 and broader textual reminiscences.12 These also appear in the letters Rosa wrote to Ricciardi,13 in which Rosa quotes Ovid in the original14 and Aristotle in a Latin translation.15 In a continuation of the pattern of classicizing selfidentification, Rosa calls Ricciardi “Horace” (after the Roman poet)16 and later “my wise and refined Metrodorus” (after the Greek philosopher Metrodorus of Lampsacus, one of the founders of Epicureanism),17 while casting himself as Boethius (after the late ancient philosopher).18 On the topic of a set of engravings, including a depiction of Diogenes the Cynic, Rosa exclaims, “Oh, how much in debt we are to the Stoic School,” and mentions Latin dedicatory inscriptions for the engravings.19 Rosa discusses classical texts that inspired his paintings, referring to Plutarch as the source for the subjects of Pan and Pindar, Aethra and Theseus, and Pythagoras on the seashore liberating a net full of fish.20 He writes about a depiction of the Catilinarian Conspiracy, executed in close accord with the description of the Roman historian Sallust,21 and refers to a painting of his on the “calling of Protagoras to philosophy,” taken from the work of the Roman author Aulus Gellius.22 Ricciardi in turn offered recommendations for suitable classical subjects, which Rosa welcomed.23 Rosa’s paintings and drawings provide further testament to his interest in and acquaintance with classical languages. A Greek Inscription in a Portrait by Salvator Rosa