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The most famous of the Cynics, the philosopher Diogenes of Sinope, who died in 323 BC, is provided here with a lamp by way of an attribute. According to his own statement, he used it in broad daylight to find a 'genuine person' on a bustling marketplace. The subject was much loved throughout Baroque Europe, although it appears that the Italians preferred to depict the philosopher alone, as with this and another painting by Ribera, while the densely populated scenes were more popular in the Netherlands.
Ribera was interested in studying different types of people, and even his religious paintings seem to be populated with figures taken from the everyday world about him, in the tradition of Caravaggio. The subject of this portrait must have prompted this depiction of an eccentric outsider, his hair tangled, his beard unkempt, his hands work-worn, dressed in simple apparel, and directing a penetrating gaze at the beholder.
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