Figure with Staff Pointing n.d.

Salvator Rosa made this print, "Figure with Staff Pointing," in 17th-century Italy using etching. As a Neapolitan, Rosa was alert to the unstable politics of his region, which was ruled by Spain but prone to revolt. Here we see a bandit-like figure who is pointing and seems to be giving direction. He's dressed as a kind of rogue, but the classical drapery lends him a certain heroic air, as if he could be a character in an ancient myth. The figure is also equipped with a staff, a visual signifier for shepherds, pilgrims, and travelers. In Rosa's time, images of banditti, or bandits, were popular among collectors. Rosa spent time with actual bandit gangs, who hid out in the Apennine Mountains of Italy. As historians, we might ask: what does it mean that these figures were both social outcasts and objects of artistic fascination? To understand Rosa's cultural milieu, we can look to period literature, police records, and even the artist's own biography, to draw out the complex social meanings of his art.