Paret's <i>The Circumspection of Diogenes</i> expresses a new seriousness which had entered academic art at this time. Replete with magical illusions, flickering light and vivid tonalities, the painting offered a strange, exotic style to the public and a subject expressing themes of austerity and self-denial. The work depicts the philosopher surrounded by personifications of worldly vices. Turning from temptation, he contemplates a volume of mathematics while at his feet lie two cabbages, symbols of the simple and natural diet of the man of intellect. The painting established Paret as one of the few artists who, along with Goya, produced works that reflected a growing taste for austerity during a period of stark economic decline.
<bdi><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Luis_Paret_y_Alc%C3%A1zar" class="extiw" title="w:en:Luis Paret y Alcázar"><span title="Spanish artist (1746-1799)">Luis Paret y Alcázar</span></a>
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1780<div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1780-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
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