(Játiva, Valencia 1591–1652 Naples)
Saint Jerome
signed and dated lower right: Jusepe de Ribera espa(…) / F. 163..,
oil on canvas, 129.5 x 102.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Nicola Spinosa for confirming the attribution of the present painting.

The composition of the present painting of Saint Jerome looking upwards to listen to the divine voice while writing in his study, a book and a skull, a symbol of mortality, lie on his desk, along with an hourglass indicating the passing of time, had important and celebrated precedents by Caravaggio and Guido Reni. It is also one that Ribera himself had used during the course of his long career, both when painting a full-length depiction of the saint (such as the canvas of 1616-1617 in the Museo Parroquial of the collegiate church of Osuna and the 1626 versions in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg and in Capodimonte, Naples; or the one of circa 1640 now in the monastery of San Lorenzo at the Escorial), and when showing him half-length (such as the canvas of 1614–1615 in the Tanenbaum collection, Toronto on long-term loan to the Art Museum of Ontario, another in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest and in a private collection in Barcelona; of circa 1630 in the Picture Gallery of the Accademia di Belle Arti, Naples; of 1634 in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid; of 1639 in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome; of 1642–1643 in the Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio; of 1644 in the Museo del Prado in Madrid; of 1648 in the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, M.A.; of circa 1650 in the Civico Museo d’Arte Antica in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan; of 1651 at Certosa and Museo di San Martino in Naples and of 1652, again in the Museo del Prado, Madrid). In all the above versions of the saint Ribera´s artistic preferences changed as his work matured. These changes are clearly apparent in the various phases of his career which began in Rome, around 1609–1610, Initially he based his work on the examples of Caravaggio and the styles of Italian, Flemish, French and Dutch painters of a marked Caravaggesque manner - from Manfredi to Baburen and de Haen, and from the young Vouet to Douffet and the early work of Valentin. He then continued in Naples, where he definitively moved in late 1616, and where he preserved some of his earlier spare and vigorous naturalism (at least until the early 1620s), and then progressively opened up to the lighter manner of the recent currents of ‘neo-Venetism’ with results that are particularly evident in his pictures produced from 1635 onwards.

Well-known examples of this phase in Ribera’s career, include a painting of 1637, the Apollo flaying Marsyas in the version in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, the pair of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Àlava in Vitoria, the Lamentation of Christ (or Pietà) in the Cappella del Tesoro of the Certosa di San Martino, also in Naples; and, from 1638, the two half figures of Moses and Elijah on the counter-facade of the church in the same Certosa.

According to Spinosa it is the skilled, more precise and controlled use of colour that places the present work in the phase of Ribera’s shift in 1634–1635 from naturalism to picturesqueness. What makes the figure of the saint both very human and immediately communicative, are the effective counterpoints of the intense red of the cloak, partially hiding his sides and chest, the grey of the hair and long beard moved by the sudden turning of his face, and the tone of his skin. As in the case of other identical or similar subjects, Ribera made use of a model from Spanish Naples and then ‘transferred’ him to the canvas to make him a real and concrete, immediately and easily comprehensible example of poverty and the precarious condition of life. Like other works by Ribera of the same period, the present picture displays the full maturity of the artist.

We are grateful to Nicola Spinosa for his help in cataloguing the present lot.

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Nicola Spinosa for confirming the attribution of the present painting.

The composition of the present painting of Saint Jerome looking upwards to listen to the divine voice while writing in his study, a book and a skull, a symbol of mortality, lie on his desk, along with an hourglass indicating the passing of time, had important and celebrated precedents by Caravaggio and Guido Reni. It is also one that Ribera himself had used during the course of his long career, both when painting a full-length depiction of the saint (such as the canvas of 1616-1617 in the Museo Parroquial of the collegiate church of Osuna and the 1626 versions in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg and in Capodimonte, Naples; or the one of circa 1640 now in the monastery of San Lorenzo at the Escorial), and when showing him half-length (such as the canvas of 1614–1615 in the Tanenbaum collection, Toronto on long-term loan to the Art Museum of Ontario, another in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest and in a private collection in Barcelona; of circa 1630 in the Picture Gallery of the Accademia di Belle Arti, Naples; of 1634 in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid; of 1639 in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome; of 1642–1643 in the Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio; of 1644 in the Museo del Prado in Madrid; of 1648 in the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, M.A.; of circa 1650 in the Civico Museo d’Arte Antica in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan; of 1651 at Certosa and Museo di San Martino in Naples and of 1652, again in the Museo del Prado, Madrid). In all the above versions of the saint Ribera´s artistic preferences changed as his work matured. These changes are clearly apparent in the various phases of his career which began in Rome, around 1609–1610, Initially he based his work on the examples of Caravaggio and the styles of Italian, Flemish, French and Dutch painters of a marked Caravaggesque manner - from Manfredi to Baburen and de Haen, and from the young Vouet to Douffet and the early work of Valentin. He then continued in Naples, where he definitively moved in late 1616, and where he preserved some of his earlier spare and vigorous naturalism (at least until the early 1620s), and then progressively opened up to the lighter manner of the recent currents of ‘neo-Venetism’ with results that are particularly evident in his pictures produced from 1635 onwards.

Well-known examples of this phase in Ribera’s career, include a painting of 1637, the Apollo flaying Marsyas in the version in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, the pair of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Àlava in Vitoria, the Lamentation of Christ (or Pietà) in the Cappella del Tesoro of the Certosa di San Martino, also in Naples; and, from 1638, the two half figures of Moses and Elijah on the counter-facade of the church in the same Certosa.

According to Spinosa it is the skilled, more precise and controlled use of colour that places the present work in the phase of Ribera’s shift in 1634–1635 from naturalism to picturesqueness. What makes the figure of the saint both very human and immediately communicative, are the effective counterpoints of the intense red of the cloak, partially hiding his sides and chest, the grey of the hair and long beard moved by the sudden turning of his face, and the tone of his skin. As in the case of other identical or similar subjects, Ribera made use of a model form Spanish Naples and then ‘transferred’ him to the canvas to make him a real and concrete, immediately and easily comprehensible example of poverty and the precarious condition of life. Like other works by Ribera of the same period, the present picture displays the full maturity of the artist.

We are grateful to Nicola Spinosa for his help in cataloguing the present lot.