Domenico Fetti in the context of Getty Museum

Philosophical pessimism is the view that life and existence are of negative value. It is often expressed as the claim that life is not worth living and that non-existence would, at least in many cases, be preferable to coming into or remaining in existence. Other formulations focus on claims that suffering and other harms have more impact or severity than pleasure and other goods; that the amount of bad in the world exceeds the quantity of good; or that existence lacks inherent value or purpose and can at most be fleetingly beneficial or limitedly meaningful.

Themes associated with pessimism appear in a range of religious and philosophical traditions, including parts of Buddhism, the book of Ecclesiastes, certain forms of Gnosticism, and the work of Hegesias of Cyrene. In the 19th century, Arthur Schopenhauer gave pessimism a systematic form in his The World as Will and Representation, and later German thinkers such as Eduard von Hartmann and Philipp Mainländer developed their own versions. In the 20th and 21st centuries, authors including Peter Wessel Zapffe, Emil Cioran, Thomas Ligotti, David Benatar, Julio Cabrera and Drew Dalton have revisited pessimistic ideas using arguments from ethics, psychology and the natural sciences.

Tristano Martinelli (c. 1556 – 1630), called Dominus Arlecchinorum, the "Master of Harlequins", was an Italian actor in the commedia dell'arte tradition.He is probably the first actor to use the name "Harlequin" for the secondo ("second") Zanni role.

Portrait of an Actor (Italian: Ritratto di un attore; French: Portrait de Comédien; Russian: Портрет актера) is a painting by Domenico Fetti in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was probably painted in 1621 or 1622 in Mantua, Italy. The sitter, who is holding a theatre mask, is believed to be a commedia dell'arte actor, either Tristano Martinelli or Francesco Andreini. There is a well known copy of the portrait by an unidentified artist in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.

According to the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 10, Saint Peter had a vision of a vessel (Greek: σκεῦος, skeuos; "a certain vessel descending upon him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners") full of animals being lowered from heaven (Acts 10:11). A voice from heaven told Peter to kill and eat, but since the vessel (or sheet, ὀθόνη, othonē) contained unclean animals, Peter declined. The command was repeated two more times, along with the voice saying, "What God hath made clean, that call not thou common" (verse 15) and then the vessel was taken back to heaven (verse 16).

At this point in the narrative, messengers sent from Cornelius the Centurion arrive and urge Peter to go with them. He does so, and mentions the vision as he speaks to Cornelius, saying "God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean" (Acts 10:28). Peter related the vision again in Acts 11:4–9.