Jusepe de Ribera
Spanish, 1591–1652
BiographyJusepe de Ribera was baptized in Játiva, near Valencia, on 17 February 1591. Nothing is known of his early training; he may have traveled to Italy (Naples?) as early as 1608-9. Ribera painted an altarpiece for the Church of San Prospero in Parma in 1611, and is documented in Rome from October 1613 through May 1616. The artist moved to Naples probably in mid-1616, although the possibility of an earlier, undocumented stay in Naples cannot be ruled out. Ribera married Caterina Azzolino, daughter of the Sicilian painter and sculptor Giovanni Bernadino Azzolino (ca. 1560-1645), in Naples in late 1616. The couple had six children. In 1626 Ribera was elected a knight in the Order of Christ of Portugal, although he was unsuccessful in obtaining a coveted Spanish knighthood. Ribera had many distinguished patrons among the Spanish viceroys in Naples, local religious orders, and aristocratic collectors that included the Genoese patrician Marcantonio Doria; Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany; and other prominent patrons throughout Italy, Sicily, and Spain. The artist died in Naples on 3 September 1652.Either in Rome or Naples, as a young artist Ribera came in contact with and was profoundly influenced by the tenebrous drama and radical naturalism of paintings by Caravaggio (1571-1610) and his followers. Ribera's style changed from this vigorous, often brutal realism to a gentler naturalism during the 1630s, possibly under the influence of Diego Velásquez (1599-1660), whom he met in 1630. Late works, demonstrating a heightened sensibility to light and color, reflect the influence of Venetian painting.
