ID 974980 
Lot 23  | JOSÉ DE RIBERA DIT LO SPAGNOLETTO (XÀTIVA 1591-1652 MERGELLINA)
Estimate value
€ 500 000 – 800 000 
Saint Jérôme
signé et daté 'Jusepe de / Ribera / español / F. 1648' (à droite, vers le centre)
huile sur toile
85,4 x 76,5 cm. (33 5/8 x 30 1/8 in.)
Provenance
Acquis par les grands-parents de l'actuel propriétaire dans les années 1930 ; puis par descendance dans la famille, France.
Post lot text
JOSÉ DE RIBERA, CALLED LO SPAGNOLETTO, SAINT JEROME, SIGNED AND DATED, OIL ON CANVAS
Previously unknown, this painting by Ribera (1591-1652) of St. Jerome penitent is a wonderful addition to the painter's body of work.
Dated 1648, it stands as testament to the technical mastery of an artist whose tormented Caravaggism was prized throughout Europe.
Born in Spain, Jusepe di Ribera arrived in Naples, then a province of the Spanish Empire, in 1616. He entered the artistic milieu and swiftly found a patron in the person of the viceroy Pedro Téllez-Girón (1574-1624), third Duke of Osuna. Both the aristocrat and his wife, Catalina Enríquez de Ribera y Cortés Zúñiga (d.1635), commissioned a number of paintings from the painter, some of which were sent back to Spain, spreading the artist's fame more widely (see the Crucifixion painted in 1616, Collegiate Church of Santa Maria de la Assunta, Osuna, Spain).
Influenced by the art of Caravaggio, who lived in Naples between 1606 and 1607, Ribera's work displays the same taste for visceral representations of flesh, and for half-length compositions that highlight the power of the male torso. Paintings representing Saint Jerome are frequent in his oeuvre; about forty such compositions are known. In these the artist's virtuosity can be seen in the passion and intensity that imbue these emaciated, partially undressed figures.
The bony physique of the model in the present painting evidently had a particular appeal for the artist, as this old man with a bald head and grey curls can be found in at least four of Ribera's paintings between 1647 and 1649, including a Saint Anthony the anchorite, dated 1647 (Pushkin Museum, Moscow; see N. Spinosa, Ribera, Naples, 2003, p.336, n°A282) and another Saint Jerome from 1648 (Louvre Museum, Paris, inv. no. MNR 329).
In an exceptional state of preservation, Saint Jerome reveals all the painter's skill, his energetic manner in the vigorous impasto of the model's hair, as well as the subtlety of his glazes and the delicate use of black outlines around the figure, which reinforce the chiaroscuro effect.
| Artist: | Jusepe de Ribera (1591 - 1652) | 
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| Applied technique: | Oil on canvas | 
| Art style: | Old Masters | 
| Place of origin: | Italy, Europe | 
| Auction house category: | Paintings | 
| Artist: | Jusepe de Ribera (1591 - 1652) | 
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| Applied technique: | Oil on canvas | 
| Art style: | Old Masters | 
| Place of origin: | Italy, Europe | 
| Auction house category: | Paintings | 
| Address of auction | CHRISTIE'S 9 Avenue Matignon 75008 Paris France | ||||||||||||||
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