# Heraclitus

- By: Hendrick ter Brugghen (ca. –1629)
- Date: 1628
- Medium: canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification: painting
- Dimensions: support: height 85.5 cm x width 70 cm
- Credit line: Gift of B. Asscher, Amsterdam and H. Koetser, Amsterdam
- Museum: [Rijksmuseum](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/SK-A-2784--ff60dc29cec0f49525b6ba73647c5bdc)
- Rights: [Public Domain Mark](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/)
- Picture: https://iiif.micr.io/ROvPP/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

The Greek sage Heraclitus was known as the crying philosopher because he mourned the folly of mankind, while his opposite Democritus (the nearby pendant) could only laugh at it. Here Heraclitus looks like a melancholy old man. Downcast, he leans on a terrestrial globe and gestures dismissively with his left hand, as if to say: ‘All is for nought, the world will come to nothing.’