Diogenes Seeking an Honest Man

Prints and Drawings

1645–47

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
Italian, 1609-1664

Diogenes the Cynic, a contemporary of Plato, is famous for having been an outspoken and contentious critic of convention. Believing that virtue was better revealed through action than theory, he maintained an ascetic lifestyle while deliberately acting out against what he found to be irrational societal customs. In this etching, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione showed Diogenes searching by lamplight, during the daytime, for a rational man. Instead of finding a man, the shoeless philosopher stumbles upon bones, vegetables, decaying bits of statues, and scavenging owls and monkeys.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
Title: Diogenes Seeking an Honest Man
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1645–1647
Medium: Etching on cream laid paper
Dimensions: Image: 21.9 × 30.6 cm (8 5/8 × 12 1/16 in.); Plate: 22 × 31 cm (8 11/16 × 12 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: The Charles Deering Collection
Reference Number: 1939.313
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/30477/manifest.json

Bartsch, illustrated 21 II/II

Bartsch 21

Bellini 16 II/II

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.