print
- Museum number
- 1852,1211.120
- Title
- Object: Antrum Platonicum
- Description
-
The Cave of Plato. A cavernous room with two groups of philosophers separated by a wall, atop the wall is a row of figurines including Cupid and Bacchus and a light casts a shadow of them against the wall, the group of men at left standing together debating, the group at right in animated discussion in a darker portion of the space; after Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem. 1604
Engraving
- Production date
- 1604
- Dimensions
-
Height: 330 millimetres
-
Width: 460 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This plate was commissioned by the Amsterdam poet Hendrik Laurensz Spiegel, who dedicated it to Pieter Paauw. Spiegel had devised the idea for the subject, which is taken from Plato's famous account in 'The Republic' of perception being not of the forms of objects but only of their distorted shadows, using the analogy of shadows seen in a cave. He had Cornelis van Haarlem turn the idea into a painting (now lost), and then commissioned this print of it from Saenredam. It was published by Hondius. See Nadine Orenstein, 'Hendrik Hondius and the business of prints in XVIIc Holland', 1996, pp.48-9.
For another impression with the lower margin cut, see 1870,0625.707.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1995 Apr-Jun, London, National Gallery, Gombrich on Shadows
- Acquisition date
- 1852
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1852,1211.120
