(Jativa 1591–1652 Naples)
The Mocking of Christ,
oil on canvas, 106.2 x 86.8 cm, framed

Inscribed on the back of the canvas with the number “813“ and inscribed on the stretcher with the number “n 699”.

Provenance:
European private collection

We are grateful to Professor Nicola Spinosa for confirming the attribution after examining the present painting in the original.

The attribution of this previously unpublished painting to Jusepe de Ribera has been confirmed by Professor Nicola Spinosa. The present canvas is an important and significant addiction to the oeuvre of the Spanish master.

The present canvas shows the moment, when Christ, crowned with thorns and holding a sceptre made of cane is insulted and mocked as the King of Jews before Herod. In this representation of the episode from the Gospel, interpreted with intense realism, Ribera demonstrates his awareness of the iconography that had already been adopted by northern artists from the 16th century and known to the caravageseque painters in the 17th century in Rome and Naples.

The present painting can be compared to Ribera´s composition of the same subject, the Mocking of Christ and Crowing with Thorns (Seville, Casa d’Alba collection, see G. Finaldi in El joven Ribera, exhibition catalogue edited by J. Milicua and J. Portùs, Madrid 2012, pp. 176-177), which was executed by Ribera after he left Rome for Naples in 1616. A compositional divergence is that the painting does not include Herod. The Alba painting is characterised by a vigorous caravagesque naturalism and can be dated immediately after the works commissioned to the artist by the Dukes of Osuna for their Collegiate Church near Cordoba, representing the Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, Saint Gerome and the Angel of Justice, Saint Lawrence in prayer and Saint Peter penitent, today all displayed in the museum of the Collegiate (see N. Spinosa, Ribera. L’opera completa, Naples 2006, pp. 273-278; see G. Finaldi in Madrid 2010, cit., pp. 162-173).

As Spinosa has pointed out, the figure of Christ depicted in the present painting is very similar in the use of light and chromatic colouring to the other figures represented in the Osuna canvases and in the Mocking of Christ of the Alba collection. Similarities can also be seen in the treatment of the anatomical features and in the handling of facial-types and dramatic expressions.

As in the Mocking of Christ from the Alba collection, the present painting shows the extraordinary juxtaposition between a theatrical interpretation and the use of realism. The figures are placed within a narrow space in order to allow a stronger emphasis on the facial expression of the boy in the centre. The figure of Christ, with an accentuated powerful effect of strength and his expressive intensity, closely resembles the Ecce Homo in the Real Academia of San Fernando in Madrid also painted by Ribera around 1620. Even though the figure of Christ is represented in different positions in the other compositions, they all share a physical resemblance that may be due to the repeated use of the same model for the paintings. The image of Christ in the present painting, his face dripping with blood and intensely concentrated in pain, looking straight at the viewer, may have been influenced by Titian, with whom the Spanish artist was very familiar.

The figure of Herod is represented in profile, with an oriental turban over his head, dressed in silk and fur and he is accompanied by a figure in the background, that probably represents one of his ministers and a soldier covering Christ with the red cloak. Herod recalls the representations of figures depicted by the artist in other compositions of the same period, such as the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence (Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria) and Christ preparing for the Crucifixion (formerly Casa d’Alba collection, Church of Saint Mary, Cogolludo; see Spinosa 2006, op. cit., pp. 280-281, n. A60, and p. 282 n. A62). The boy on the right in the Cogolludo painting may have been painted from the same model representing the young man mocking Christ in the present painting. Both display similar boyish features and seem to be inspired by the “scugnizzi” of the streets of Naples in the beginning of the seventeenth century.

On the basis of these comparisons Spinosa dates the present painting to immediately after 1620 and before 1624, when the painter´s style changed, as is apparent in the composition of the Madonna with the Child and Saint Bruno (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie). This period represented a crucial phase in Ribera´s artistic production between Rome and Naples, under the influence of Caravaggio but with a vigorous naturalism and a greater expression in the physical characteristics of the figures.

When the present painting is compared to the Infrared reflectograph (see fig.1) a pentiment over the right sholder is apparent as well as a slight alteration to the head of Christ.

We are extremely grateful to Professor Craig Felton for independently confirming the attribution to Jusepe de Ribera (Jativa 1591–1652 Naples) and for suggesting a date of circa 1615 for the present painting on the basis of a digital photograph.