Lot Essay
The present pictures are based on two of a series of five personifications of the senses painted by Ribera in Rome in 1615-16. The prototype of Smell, rediscovered in 1989, is now in the collection of D. Juan Abelló, Madrid (exhibited Naples, Jusepe de Ribera, 27 Feb.-17 May 1992, pp. 118-9, no. 1.4, illustrated in colour; and Madrid, Museo del Prado, Ribera, 2 June-16 Aug. 1992, pp.168-9, no. 2, illustrated in colour). Hearing is only known from copies, such as that which forms part of a complete set of five in the Europahaus, Vienna (illustrated in the Naples exhibition catalogue, p. 23, and the Madrid exhibition catalogue, p. 26)