Diogenes Throwing Away His Cup

Diogenes Throwing Away His Cup from 1833 by John Martin depicts the Cynic philosopher's famous act of renunciation, when he discovered a child drinking from cupped hands and discarded his own cup as unnecessary. The philosophical subject allowed Martin to move beyond his apocalyptic spectacular mode into a more intimate engagement with classical thought, though he retained his characteristic landscape drama. Diogenes sits amid rocky terrain, the vast Hellenic landscape stretching behind him, a figure of radical simplicity against a background of sublime natural grandeur. Martin was a deeply unconventional figure in British art, self-educated and working outside academic conventions, whose Romantic sensibility found in ancient philosophy the same contempt for luxury and convention that drove his biblical visions. The painting is held at the Laing Art Gallery.

The solitary philosopher is dwarfed by the expansive landscape, the small human figure creating dramatic contrast with the sublime natural setting.