Euclid

Emerging from deep shadows behind a table, a solemn individual stands displaying a well-worn book covered with geometric figures, pseudo-Greek characters and an imaginary script; the presence of mathematical diagrams reveals his identity as Euclid, the mathematician of antiquity. Jusepe de Ribera paid close attention to the man’s face — the unkempt beard, the creases of his high forehead, the irregular folds of the lids above his dark, penetrating eyes — and gave him tattered clothes and blackened, grimy fingers to emphasize his devotion to intellectual rather than material pursuits. The painting is held in the J. Paul Getty Museum.