Self-portrait

Salvator Rosa

As well as demonstrating the painter's erudition, the use of Greek may also have served a symbolic purpose. In this painting, the artist is shown inscribing a skull with a Greek text that may read: "Behold: whither, sometime". The artist uses the language of timeless wisdom to write on an object symbolising the transience of human existence. This juxtaposition heightens the contrast between the eternal and the transient, which is the message of the painted scene.