


Following a custom fashionable with Napolitan intellectuals and adopted by Jusepe de Ribera, Luca Giordano portrayed himself as a young man in the guise of a philosopher or, as here, of an alchemist, a role hinted at by the large still which he holds in his hands as he scrutinises the observer with his intense, magnetic gaze.

AUTHOR Luca Giordano
DATE c. 1660
OBJECT TYPE AND MATERIAL Oil on canvas
DIMENSIONS cm 116 x 96
INVENTORY 689
ROOM XXXII
Work on display