Lipsius, Justus

(1547-1606)

   Flemish philosopher and humanist who revived the ancient Stoic philosophy of Seneca and Tacitus and tried to reconcile it with Christianity. The founder of Neo-Stoicism, Lipsius articulated in his De Constantia (1584) and Politicorum sive civilis doctrinae (1589) the mastery of emotions and the values of choosing virtue over pleasure as the proper paths. For Lipsius, the evils of society can only be resolved through constancy, which he defined as strength of mind, invulnerable to external events. Peter Paul Rubens' brother, Philip, was a pupil of Lipsius. When Philip died, the artist commemorated the event by painting The Four Philosophers (1612; Florence, Palazzo Pitti), a work that shows Lipsius surrounded by three of his pupils, including Philip. The artist stands behind the main figures, opposite a bust of Seneca. The four tulips in front of the bust, two opened and two closed, denote that both Philip and Lipsius had already died when the portrait was created. As further homage to those depicted, Rubens added the Roman Palatine Hill in the background, in antiquity the locus of learned discussion.