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Notes
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This is a full-length self portrait of the artist wearing hermit's habit. Edward Altham was a cousin of Jerome Bankes and lived in Rome, having been received in to the Church there in 1652. His arms are crossed against his breast and his right foot rests on books with torn pages. The books are the works of Epictetus (Epicurus) and bear the label 'Post mortem mulla voluptas' (There is no pleasure after death). He gazes upon a scroll, inscribed 'Post mortem summa voluptas' (The greatest pleasure is after death), which hangs from a branch above a pedestal, on which rests a copy of the Gospels and a skull. The pedestal is carved with a relief of a figure of Time devouring a statue of a classical torso (the Belvedere Torso), copied from Francois Perrier's 'One Hundred Statues Spared by the Envious Tooth of Time' (1638). These various references reveal a tremendous conflict of thought.
Title
Self Portrait as a Hermit
Date
c.1680/1690
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 236 x W 165 cm
Accession number
1257111
Acquisition method
bequeathed by Ralph Bankes, 1981
Work type
Painting
