30 January 2011

Salvator's Philosophy

I thought I would take an opportunity to share with you one of my favorite pieces of art. It is a self portrait by the rebel without a pause, Salvator Rosa, who died in 1673. It is entitled Philosophy and was painted in 1640. While you may scratch your heads today as to what the Latin inscription means, scholars of yesteryear had no such problem and found this picture immensely amusing.

It means:

Keep silent unless what you are going to say is more important than silence.