Democritus laughing and Heraclitus weeping, with a globe between them. Etching by R. Gaywood after J. van Vliet after Rembrandt van Rijn.

  • Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669.
Date:
[between 1650 and 1659?]
Reference:
543395i
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About this work

Publication/Creation

[London] : J. Overton, [between 1650 and 1659?]

Physical description

1 print : etching

Lettering

Democritus: Heraclitus: I laugh at this madd world: :But I do weepe / That brainsick mortalls such a coyle shuld keepe. W. Hollar sculp.

Creator/production credits

An earlier state published by P. Stent bears the attribution "R. Gaywood fecit". In the present state, Gaywood's name has been deleted and the line "W. Hollar sculp." added. According to Griffiths, the change is "an early example of the tendency of the posthumous vogue for Hollar to accrete unrelated prints into his oeuvre"

References note

A. Bredius, Rembrandt: the complete edition of the paintings, London, 1935, p.123 (left), and p. 453
Antony Griffiths, The print in Stuart Britain 1603-1689, London 1998, pp. 169-170, no. 108

Reference

Wellcome Collection 543395i

Reproduction note

After two etchings by van Vliet, one based on Rembrandt's 'Laughing man' in the Mauritshuis at the Hague (Bredius, Br.134), the other on the same artist's 'Judas returning the thirty pieces of silver', 1629, in the Normanby collection at Mulgrave Castle, Yorkshire (Bredius, Br.539)

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