Democritus
Hendrick ter Brugghen (ca. –1629)
1628
- Medium
- canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification
- painting
- Dimensions
- support: height 85.7 cm x width 70 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Credit line
- Gift of B. Asscher, Amsterdam and H. Koetser, Amsterdam
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
About this work
The Greek philosophers Democritus and Heraclitus were considered to be polar opposites. In contrast to the old, melancholy Heraclitus (the nearby pendant), Democritus appears as a young, laughing hedonist. He points to the distance, as though that is where the folly of mankind is found. Together, the pair of paintings conveys a moralizing message: whether you laugh or cry, the world remains incurably foolish.
