Francisco Ribalta

FRANCISCO RIBALTA (Solsona, Lleida, 1565 - Valencia, 1628).
"Saint Simon.
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Work reproduced in: Gómez Frechina, J.: Masters of the Spanish Baroque. Museum of BB. AA. of Murcia, Murcia 2020, cat. nº 3 p. 18.
It presents restorations on the pictorial surface.
Measurements: 109 x 87 cm; 124,5 x 104 cm (frame).
Devotional scene representing the figure of a man dressed in brown tunic and ochre mantle. The figure is shown to the spectator through his posture with a pious attitude. To do so, he raises his face upwards and directs his gaze towards the sky, in an attitude of clemency. Inscribed in an exterior, the piece stands out for its austerity, both in the conception of the landscape and the figure that follows a triangular composition with classical influence. The representation of this religious figure, probably a hermit and the book, added to the dimensions of the work, indicates that it was probably a painting that belonged to a larger clique, formed by religious figures, saints or apostles. Thanks to the color of the tunic and the mantle, the feather that is on the rocks and the book that he holds open in his hands, it can be deduced that it is the representation of Simon the Zealot or Simon the Canaanite or Simon the Canaanite. He was one of Jesus' apostles. To distinguish him from Simon Peter, he is called Canaanite , according to the manuscript (Matthew 10: 4 Mark 3:18), and in the list of apostles in Luke 6:15, repeated in Acts 1:13, Zelotes, the "Zealot".We can frame this work within the circle of Francisco Ribalta, a painter formed between the mannerism of the Escorial and the natusralism that, from the decade of 1610, will evolve taking an intimate and deep bias, very according to the most pious mood of the Counter-Reformation, inspired by the solemn gravity of certain models of Sebastiano del Piombo that he knew in Valencia itself. Ribalta knew how to combine these influences with a naturalistic and direct language for which he was especially gifted. His chromatism also became more restrained and sober, and his figures lost in gesticulation to deepen in expressive intensity. From the second decade of the century his disciple Vicente Castelló and his son Juan Ribalta worked with him, forming a solid and prolific artistic team, in which sometimes it is not easy to distinguish their individualities. Around 1618 Ribalta fell ill, and this was the beginning of his last stage, the most mature of his production. He painted fewer works, but his style became more intense and emotional, entering into a deep naturalism of moving force, as seen in his great painting "Embrace of St. Francis to the Crucified", painted for the Capuchins of Valencia around 1622. Six years later Francisco Ribalta died, and a few months later also his son Juan, leaving traced in the Valencian painting guidelines that would last for a long time, conditioning the development of the Baroque style. In fact, Ribalta was, together with Velázquez and Ribera, one of the main founders of the naturalistic language in Spain.