Archytas , Philosopher from Taranto
Artist: Salvator Rosa (Italian, 1615-1673)
Date: 1668
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain
Description
The Archytas of Rosa depicts the philosopher poised to release a wooden dove, his most famous attribute. Archytas was a Pythagorean philosopher who lived in the first half of the 4th century BC and is credited as the founder of mechanics. His creation of a flying wooden dove was described by the Roman writer and compiler Aulus Gellius (c. 130-180 AD) in his Attic Nights , the only literary source for this episode. So unusual is the story that Gellius felt compelled to cite his friend and predecessor, the philosopher Favorinus ( 85-155 AD), as an authority on the matter: “ Many celebrated Greeks, and in particular the philosopher Favorinus , a man very learned in the ancient traditions, have unequivocally described a model of a flying dove, made of wood by Archytas with a special construction that followed the principles of the discipline of mechanics.”
