Juan Ribalta

JUAN RIBALTA (Madrid, c. 1596-Valencia, 1628).
"St. Peter.
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It presents restorations in the pictorial surface.
Work reproduced in: Palencia J. Mª. Baroque spirit. Granados Collection. Burgos 2008 p. 105.
It has a XIX century frame.
Measurements: 178 x 87,5 cm; 190 x 100 cm (frame).
In this canvas we see St. Peter portrayed standing with his gaze directed towards the viewer. The figure is worked with an enormous naturalism, emphasizing the wrinkles of the face and the expressiveness of the hands. The tenebrist lighting used manages to give the figure a greater physical presence, a greater three-dimensionality and also intensity and effect to the figure. These features, as well as the chromatic range used, are typical of the naturalistic baroque. The dramatic figure is outlined against a dark background of dense darkness, as if emerging from the shadows, directly illuminated by a spotlight, theatrical and directed, which falls directly on the face and hands of the saint, leaving the rest of the figure enveloped in a nuanced penumbra. Regarding the subject represented, St. Peter (Bethsaida, c. 1 B.C. - Rome, 67) was, according to the New Testament, a fisherman, known for being one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. The Catholic Church identifies him through the apostolic succession as the first Pope, based, among other arguments, on the words addressed to him by Jesus: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the power of Death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." St. Peter could be said to have been the confessor of Jesus, his closest disciple, being both united by a very special bond, as narrated in the Gospels, both canonical and apocryphal.

Juan Ribalta (Madrid, c. 1596-Valencia, 1628), was a Baroque painter who developed his career in the city of Valencia. He began his artistic training under the guidance of his father, the renowned artist Francisco Ribalta, a follower of Caravaggista painting. Always linked to the workshop of his father Juan Ribalta, he signed his first work at the age of eighteen with his father's workshop. Three years later, in 1618, he married, thus achieving an advantageous economic position, and began to be linked to the world of literature. His pictorial work is characterized by a tenebrist aesthetic style very close to the pictorial quality of his father. However, Juan Ribalta, at first, started from the precepts of mannerism, to which he applied certain touches of naturalistic character. Later his painting began to show a certain interest in the anecdotal and the everyday, characteristics that were widely present in the workshop of Bassano, an artist from whom he received a great influence. Regarding his last stage, his painting turned towards a much more sober language of naturalistic style, again close to his father. However, despite his father's fame, Juan Ribalta's talent was highly appreciated, in fact, Palomino was a great defender of his work, dedicating to him these words: "in that the father's manner was more defined, and the son's somewhat looser and more beaten". However, it should be noted that his untimely death left us the work of a great painter, who was still shaping his own pictorial language.