# Heraclitus [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [TERBRUGGHEN, Hendrick]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 86 x 70 cm ## Commentary The Greek sage Heraclitus was known as the crying philosopher because he mourned the folly of mankind, while his opposite Democritus \(the pendant of the painting\) could only laugh at it. Here Heraclitus looks like a melancholy old man. Downcast, he leans on a terrestrial globe and gestures dismissively with his left hand, as if to say: 'All is for nought, the world will come to nothing.' ## Related artworks - [A Laughing Bravo with a Bass Viol and a Glass]() - [Bagpipe Player]() - [Boy Lighting a Pipe from a Candle]() - [Boy Playing a Fife]() - [Boy Playing a Recorder]() - [Christ Crowned with Thorns]() - [Democritus]() - [Duet]() - [Esau Selling His Birthright]() - [Esau Selling His Birthright]() - [Girl Holding a Tankard and a Glass]() - [Jacob Reproaching Laban]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()