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Lot Essay
The early 1630s found Ribera at the height of his career. By this time, he had become the leading painter in Spanish-ruled Naples—the second largest urban center in Europe, alive with artistic creativity and a destination for painters from across the Continent. In addition to commissions from local patrons, Ribera provided pictures for a burgeoning market of international clients who were drawn to his dramatic, magnetic naturalism executed with startling originality and virtuosity. During this prolific period of activity Ribera took up a range of subject matter, including a renowned series of philosophers for the Duke of Alcalà, as well as images of saints, in states of penitence and ecstasy. Among these are also his reflective, portrait-like depictions of individual saints, or Apostolados, which rank among the artist’s most powerful single-figure compositions.
The use of chiaroscuro and the emotive gaze of Saint Paul reflect the influence of Caravaggio, who had lived in Naples between 1606 and 1607 and was key to Ribera’s early development as an artist. The decisive impact of the great Baroque master continued to be felt in the city for decades after his death. Ribera's work captures the same taste for startlingly naturalistic representations of flesh, and for half-length compositions that pulse with pathos and emotional intensity, but with a less theatrical and more reflective spiritual approach than his predecessor. The need to make pictures that reinforced the teachings of the Counter Reformation, by focusing the viewer on individual characters from the Bible, was reaffirmed by Cardinal Federico Borromeo’s De Pictura Sacra, published in 1624. Ribera, perhaps more than any other artist of the era, excelled in producing works of such spiritual depth.
The central focus of the present picture is on the piercing gaze of Saint Paul, directed toward the sword of his martyrdom held in his right hand but also off into the middle distance outside the picture plane. In other depictions of the saint, Ribera includes a book as one of his attributes, reflecting his status as one of the most important epistolatory contributors to the New Testament. However, in this depiction, Ribera is able to convey Paul’s status as an important early Christian writer and thinker through the intelligence of his gaze, without detracting from the spiritual solemnity of the saint contemplating his martyrdom. His furrowed and drawn brow, beautifully rendered by the artist with remarkable naturalism, is further emphasized by the placement and turn of the saint’s head, and the carefully studied detail of the play of light off his skin. The luminous and fluid handling of the drapery is entirely typical of Ribera.
A nearly complete set of Apostolados, preserved in the Prado, is considered to have been painted around 1630-32. When the present work was sold in 2004 Professor Nicola Spinosa suggested the same dating for this painting, though believed that it was likely executed before the Prado series. Another version of this picture is recorded in a private collection, Naples (N. Spinosa, L'opera completa del Ribera, Milan, 1978, p. 102, no. 63).
The use of chiaroscuro and the emotive gaze of Saint Paul reflect the influence of Caravaggio, who had lived in Naples between 1606 and 1607 and was key to Ribera’s early development as an artist. The decisive impact of the great Baroque master continued to be felt in the city for decades after his death. Ribera's work captures the same taste for startlingly naturalistic representations of flesh, and for half-length compositions that pulse with pathos and emotional intensity, but with a less theatrical and more reflective spiritual approach than his predecessor. The need to make pictures that reinforced the teachings of the Counter Reformation, by focusing the viewer on individual characters from the Bible, was reaffirmed by Cardinal Federico Borromeo’s De Pictura Sacra, published in 1624. Ribera, perhaps more than any other artist of the era, excelled in producing works of such spiritual depth.
The central focus of the present picture is on the piercing gaze of Saint Paul, directed toward the sword of his martyrdom held in his right hand but also off into the middle distance outside the picture plane. In other depictions of the saint, Ribera includes a book as one of his attributes, reflecting his status as one of the most important epistolatory contributors to the New Testament. However, in this depiction, Ribera is able to convey Paul’s status as an important early Christian writer and thinker through the intelligence of his gaze, without detracting from the spiritual solemnity of the saint contemplating his martyrdom. His furrowed and drawn brow, beautifully rendered by the artist with remarkable naturalism, is further emphasized by the placement and turn of the saint’s head, and the carefully studied detail of the play of light off his skin. The luminous and fluid handling of the drapery is entirely typical of Ribera.
A nearly complete set of Apostolados, preserved in the Prado, is considered to have been painted around 1630-32. When the present work was sold in 2004 Professor Nicola Spinosa suggested the same dating for this painting, though believed that it was likely executed before the Prado series. Another version of this picture is recorded in a private collection, Naples (N. Spinosa, L'opera completa del Ribera, Milan, 1978, p. 102, no. 63).