Self-portrait as a Hermit
Edward Altham (Latton 1622 - Rome 1694)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1680 - 1690
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
2362 x 1651 mm (93 x 65 in)
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset
NT 1257111
Caption
This is a full-length portrait of the artist himself wearing hermit's habit. He 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 inscribed as the works of Epictetus (Epicurus), which 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 carved 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. Altham was an imitator of Salvator Rosa, by whom this picture was long thought to be by. The oil sketch of the head, also at Kingston Lacy, was painted by an unknown artist in Rome.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Self-portrait as a Hermit, by Edward Altham (Latton 1622 – Rome 1694), circa 1680/90. A full-length portrait, turned to left, head turned to right, wearing hermit's habit, his arms crossed on his breast, his right foot resting on books with torn pages inscribed as the works of Epictetus (Epicurus), which 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 carved relief of a figure of Time devouring a statue of a classical torso (the Belvedere Torso), copied from François Perrier's 'One Hundred Statues Spared by the Envious Tooth of Time' (1638). Edward Altham was a cousin of Jerome Bankes, with whom he was in Italy. Altham was an imitator of Salvator Rosa, by whom this picture was long thought to be by.The oil sketch of the head, also at Kingston Lacy, was painted by an unknown artist in Rome.
Provenance
Painted in Rome after 1650, and presumably left to his cousin, John Bankes, MP (1665 - 1714); bequeathed by Ralph Bankes, 1981
Credit line
Kingston Lacy, The Bankes Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Edward Altham (Latton 1622 - Rome 1694), amateur artist
References
Montagu 1990 Jennifer Montagu, "Edward Altham as a Hermit",- in England and the Continental Renaissance, 1990, pp.271-282 Scott 1995 Jonathan Scott, Salvator Rosa. His Life and Times, Yale, New Haven & London, 1995, p.218, illus p.219, pl.231