Old Master Paintings – Part 1

JUSEPE DE RIBERA, ALSO

JUSEPE DE RIBERA, ALSO KNOWN AS “LO SPAGNOLETTO”, 1588/91 XÀTIVA/ VALENCIA – 1652 NAPLES SAINT ROCH Oil on canvas. 86 x 68 cm. Accompanied by expert‘s reports by Luigi Salerno; Nicola Spinosa, 15 October 2014; Claudio Strinati, March 2015. The painting shows a life-size half-length portrait of a middle-aged man. His face is illuminated from the top left and stands out against an olive-brown background; it is framed by his black hair and medium-long beard. A cloak and hat are attributes identifying the depicted as Saint Roch. The painting is, however, clearly also a portrait of a contemporary, possibly a person named Roch, whose namesake is intended to be commemorated by the attributes. Another depiction of Saint Roch by Ribera compares well to the present painting (Prado Museum, 212 x 144 cm). It shows the same man, identical in head position and physiognomy, but in full-length portrait and with the Saint‘s other attributes: the walking staff, a dog with a loaf of bread in its mouth, which, according to legend, is said to have provided the saint with food during his seclusion, and the saint‘s presented thigh. Significantly, however, the plague boil on his leg is missing in the Prado painting. This can only be explained if this is not a depiction of the saint himself, but rather a portrait of a gentleman with the same name who does not show any signs of illness, which means that the leg is only to be understood as an attribute reference to the name. In the years 1631-32 Ribera created a series of portraits that were later incorporated into other contexts – for example as philosophers or saints. Literature: cf. Nicola Spinosa, Ribera. l‘opera complete, second expanded edition, Napoli 2006. cf. Michael Scholz-Hänsel, Jusepe de Ribera, 1591- 1652, Cologne 2000. cf. Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, Nicola Spinosa, Jusepe De Ribera 1591-1652, exhibition catalogue, Metropolitan Museum, New York 1992. cf. Jonathan Brown, Jusepe de Ribera: Prints and Drawings, exhibition catalogue, Art Museum, Princeton University, October - November 1973. Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 1973. € 170.000 - € 250.000 (†) Sistrix INFO | BID 44 HAMPEL ONLINE Visit www.hampel-auctions.com for around 7.000 additional images.