Courtesy of Hood Museum of Art

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The vast body of work of Luca Giordano, one of the most celebrated artists of the Neapolitan Baroque, included religious scenes, mythological subjects, and vast decorative fresco cycles executed in Naples, Venice, Florence, and Madrid. His early development was deeply influenced by the dramatic lighting and bold naturalism of Caravaggio (1571–1610) and Jusepe de Ribera (1591–1652).

This painting ranks among the greatest early works of Giordano presently in the United States. It originally belonged to a series of ten “portraits” of philosophers that was in the Carvallo collection in Villandry, France, at the beginning of the past century. The subject is the stoic philosopher Carneades (213/14–129 BCE) gone blind, who recognizes the bust of the young Pan (Paniscus) through the sense of touch.

As in many of his early images of “philosophers” — imaginary portraits of famous classical thinkers, or more generic representations of astronomers or mathematicians — he particularly emphasizes physiognomy here. In the absence of “actual” portraits (if one excludes some ancient busts of Seneca or Cato), the artist’s challenge in these works was to create a believable likeness of a subject known only through literary sources. Giordano demonstrates in this painting his mastery at depicting such qualities as nobility, resignation, and strength, which not only define the character of his subject but also lend the painting its power.

J. Patrice Marandel