DUTCH SCHOOL, 17TH CENTURY

Chilon was a Spartan philosopher known as one of the 'Seven Sages of Greece', a group of statesmen renowned in the early sixth century B.C. for their wisdom. Here, Chilon is shown holding a mirror, almost certainly a reference to his proverb 'know thyself', which is echoed in the Greek and Latin inscriptions on the trompe l'oeil frame. Although the picture is clearly dated 1627, its composition is based on an earlier engraving of 1596 by Jan Harmensz. Muller (see W.L. Strauss, The Illustrated Bartsch, 1980, IV, p. 455).