Democritus laughing and Heraclitus weeping, with a globe between them. Etching by R. Gaywood after J. van Vliet after Rembrandt van Rijn.

[London] : J. Overton, [between 1650 and 1659?]

1 print : etching

Democritus: Heraclitus: I laugh at this madd world: :But I do weepe / That brainsick mortalls such a coyle shuld keepe. W. Hollar sculp.

An earlier state published by P. Stent bears the attribution "R. Gaywood fecit". In the present state, Gaywood's name has been deleted and the line "W. Hollar sculp." added. According to Griffiths, the change is "an early example of the tendency of the posthumous vogue for Hollar to accrete unrelated prints into his oeuvre"

A. Bredius, Rembrandt: the complete edition of the paintings, London, 1935, p.123 (left), and p. 453

Antony Griffiths, The print in Stuart Britain 1603-1689, London 1998, pp. 169-170, no. 108

Wellcome Collection 543395i

After two etchings by van Vliet, one based on Rembrandt's 'Laughing man' in the Mauritshuis at the Hague (Bredius, Br.134), the other on the same artist's 'Judas returning the thirty pieces of silver', 1629, in the Normanby collection at Mulgrave Castle, Yorkshire (Bredius, Br.539)