Salvator Rosa (June 20 or July 21, 1615 – March 15, 1673) was an Italian Baroque artist, poet, and printmaker who was active in Naples, Rome and Florence. In his art, he is best remembered for his landscapes in which he created brooding, melancholic fantasies, awash with ruins and brigands. He refused to paint on commission, instead choosing his own subjects purely for his own satisfaction. He was regarded as a "perpetual rebel".
This oil-on-canvas self-portrait, entitled Philosophy, dates from around 1645 and shows Rosa wearing a scholar's cap and brown gown, as a personification of philosophy. Half of his face is in shadow, and the cold lighting emphasises his long, narrow nose, his furrowed brow and unkempt hair. The Latin inscription on the tablet, Aut tace aut loquere meliora silentio, is taken from Stobaeus's Anthologia, and translates to 'Either be silent or say something better than silence'. The painting now hangs in the National Gallery, London.Painting credit: Salvator Rosa