School of José de Ribera

School of JOSÉ DE RIBERA (Xátiva, Valencia, 1591 - Naples, 1652); XVII century.
"The apparition of the Child to St. Anthony".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Presents restorations.
Measurements: 185 x 146 cm.
This painting is directly inspired by the homonymous canvas of José de Ribera, preserved in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, where the painting is defined. This iconographic model of José Ribera will be strongly established in the Spanish Counter-Reformation, because before him the dominant iconography was the representation of the child in the arms of the saint. Here the intense luminous contrast brings an unquestionable dramatic effect, typically baroque, to the composition. The light, cold and silver, seems to emanate from the interior of the bodies: from the flesh of the saint, whose features express the utmost arrogance, and from the naked body of the Child Jesus. The painter has dispensed with the court of cherubs that surround the Child as a break of glory, in Ribera's painting. The marked diagonal of the original composition is maintained, as well as the plasticity given by the golden effect of the celestial light.
Ribera made different versions of the theme, and it is kept in El Escorial, in the cathedral of Granada and in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples. The painting comes from the royal collections and formed a set with the Assumption of the Magdalene by the same author and also in the Academy in the Royal Apartments of El Escorial. Both canvases are a good example of the devotion to the saints after the Council of Trent (1545-1563). In 1871 this canvas was included in Cuadros selectos de la Real Academia de las tres Nobles Artes de San Fernando, a collection of prints that aimed to spread the knowledge of the most singular works of the institution and, at the same time, to promote the art of engraving.
Due to its subject matter and style, we can situate this painting within the Neapolitan school of the 17th century around the school of José de Ribera, a key painter belonging to the generation of the great masters of the Golden Age, self-taught in Italy. His first contact with naturalism took place with his arrival in Rome in 1615, where he came into contact with the Nordic Caravaggists, from whom he adopted the smooth and hurried technique, the feísmo and the rigorous drawing, characteristics that shaped his style in his Roman period. However, in 1616 he went to Naples and settled there permanently. In this city Ribera will become the head of the group of Neapolitan naturalists, and around him an important circle of painters will be created. In spite of being in Italy, Ribera will send numerous works to Spain, so that his language will be key for the formation of the baroque in our country. His work will bring the tenebrism and, later, the full baroque, long before it will arrive directly to Spain, thus influencing the new generations of painters. On the other hand, once his Roman period was over, his painting would be characterized by a very loose brushstroke, with Venetian influence, which would also mark the work of his followers. Thus, the school of Ribera developed a style of dramatic and contrasting illumination, clearly tenebrist, nuanced however by a Venetian brushstroke, impastoed and fluid. Thus, here we see an artificial and directed spotlight that penetrates the scene through the upper left corner and directly illuminates the face and torso of the philosopher, leaving the rest in semi-darkness. And we also find that totally modern brushstroke that models leaning on the light, that touch of doughy and expressive brush directly from the school of Ribera.