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Jusepe de Ribera
(1591-1652)
Jusepe de Rivera was born in J¨¢tiba, near Valencia, where he was probably trained by Francisco Ribalta (1565-1628). In 1612-1613, Rivera left for Italy, where he led the life of a half-beggar, constantly traveling throughout the country. During his travels to Parma, Padua and Rome, Rivera became acquainted with the works of Raphael, Correggio, Titian and Veronese.
In 1616, he settled in Naples, then owned by Spain, and developed a style, which owed much to Caravaggio. In Naples, Ribera became a painter to the Spanish Viceroy and later to his successor, the Duke of Monterrey, who procured commissions from the Augustine monastery in Salamanca (Nativity, Piet¨¤, The Virgin with Saints Anthony and Augustine. 1631-1635).
He subsequently abandoned the dark and somber style, finding new ways of treating light and using brilliant colors. His Boy with a Clubfoot is typical of his more mature style, both thematically and in terms of pictorial composition. During this period of realism he had a leaning towards harrowing subjects, the crippled and malformed.
Ribera spawned a school of his own. Italian, Spanish and Flemish painters were engaged in his workshop, and while Rivera was of particular importance to Neapolitan art, great painters, such as Rembrandt and Vel¨¢squez, also found him an inspiration.
Died in Naples in 1652.
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