A self-portrait by Salvator Rosa, an Italian Baroque painter and poet who was described as "unorthodox and extravagant" and a "perpetual rebel". His life and adventures, along with those of Masaniello, a Neapolitan fisherman turned rebel leader, formed the basis for Antônio Carlos Gomes's 1874 opera Salvator Rosa. Its librettist, Antonio Ghislanzoni, had also written the libretto for Verdi's Aida.