(active in Naples circa 1625–1650)
Philosopher,
oil on canvas, 62 x 52 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Madrid, until 2017;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
G. Papi, Cuatro caravaggistas, Bassetti, Borgianni, Caracciolo y Ribera, exhibition catalogue, Barcelona: Artur Ramon Art 2017, pp. 38-41 (as Ribera)

We are grateful to Nicola Spinosa for suggesting the attribution and a date of circa 1645 for the present painting after examination of the original.

This work is characterised by both a high degree of naturalism and a focus on the psychological exploration of the subject. An old man is portrayed holding a book, looking directly at the viewer. The artist’s brushstrokes have been skilfully applied to model his wrinkles, his cheekbones and nose. Quick and precise highlights define his beard and hair, framing two piercing dark eyes at the centre of the composition. His deep, penetrating gaze turns the features of a fragile man into those of a solemn, almost prophetic, figure emerging from the darkness.

The man is shown with one of the attributes that often identifies scholars and philosophers, a leather book. Remarkable is the hand resting on the book’s cover, a position which conveys the familiarity of a natural gesture, often repeated. Yet, despite this subtle hint, no element in the painting can give us precise indications on the subject’s identity. This seems to be a deliberate choice of the artist; the present painting may be closer to a portrait than to an allegory or a historical depiction. The tilted head and curved back, slightly open mouth and arched eyebrows are not those of a polished, idealised subject. They express the hardship and sorrow of humanity in the depiction of a real man, as introduced by Caravaggio, and quickly mastered by his followers in southern Italy and beyond; a severe naturalism which embodies the spirit of Baroque painting.

Due to its high pictorial quality, the painting had been previously attributed to Jusepe de Ribera (1591–1652). The mastery of chiaroscuro and emotional intensity can in fact be compared to the Apostles by Ribera, such as Saint Bartholomew (1630–35), in the Museo del Prado, Madrid; or to his Diogenes (1637) now in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden. While the affinity is certainly evident, the present painting has been given to a corpus of works realised in the fourth decade of the seventeenth century, by the so-called Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds.

The painter, whose precise identity is still unknown, was active in Naples between 1625 and 1650 and his name derives from a painting entitled Annunciation to the Shepherds, now conserved in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Around this work, which was previously attributed to Diego Velázquez, a rich catalogue of paintings has been gathered. Pietro Beato, and particularly Bartolomeo Passante, appear to be the artists whose production is closest to this corpus, which may also belong to more than one painter. Even though he was trained from a young age, Passante was only thirty years old when he died in 1648, after a relatively short career.

It has been suggested that Ribera painted the outcasts of the city of Naples, whilst artists such as Bartolomeo Passante and the Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds, drew their models from the surrounding countryside, depicting humble figures, often of rough manners, but capable of sincere emotions and communicative gestures. Perhaps it was among these models of the Neapolitan countryside that the artist of the present painting found his Philosopher, with his signs of severity and dignity: the deep wrinkles marked by the years under the inclement southern sun; the hard gaze of a man who has seen many winters, and is preparing for the last one to come.