Description
"Diogenes the Cynic (1882)" by John William Waterhouse
“Diogenes” by John William Waterhouse depicts “Diogenes the Cynic” (412 – 323 BC), who was a Greek philosopher. Diogenes was a controversial figure with a reputation for sleeping and eating wherever he chose in a non-traditional fashion. Diogenes made a virtue of poverty. He would beg for a living and often slept in a large ceramic planter pot (no cardboard boxes back then) in the marketplace, as John Waterhouse has depicted him in his 1882 painting.
Waterhouse has contrasted the joyful and richly dressed women with the older man who would become one of the founders of Cynic philosophy. In front of his ceramic pot lodgings is a lamp that he carried during the day and he would claim that he was searching for an honest man. Diogenes criticized Plato, disputed his interpretation of Socrates, and it is rumored that he mocked Alexander the Great, both in public and to his face when he visited Corinth in 336.
Diogenes passed his philosophy of Cynicism to a student named Zeno, who fashioned it into the school of Stoicism, one of the most enduring schools of Greek philosophy. So it might be thought that Diogenes was one of the founding fathers of Stoicism.
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Color Changing Fine Art Print
Painter: John William Waterhouse
Composition by: EFX Gallery
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