Diogenes, being offered whatever he wants by Alexander the Great, asks Alexander to step aside so that he can see the sun: Alexander realizes that the person who desires little is happier than the person who demands much. Etching by S. Rosa.

[between 1600 and 1699]

1 print : etching ; platemark 45.5 x 27.2 cm

Sensit Alexander testa quum vidit in illa / Magnum habitatorem, quanto felicior hic, qui / Nil cuperet, quam qui totum sibi posceret orbem ; Salvator Rosa inv. scul. The three Latin verses are from Juvenal, Satirae XIV, vv. 311-313: "Alexander realized, when he saw that great barrel-dweller, how much happier this man would be who desired nothing than he who demanded the whole world for himself"

Adam Bartsch, Le peintre graveur, Würzburg 1920-1922, vol. 20, p. 163, no. 6

Wellcome Collection 38758i