Jusepe de Ribera, called Spagnoletto

Anonymous sale ("Different Properties"), London, Christie’s, 21 November 1924, lot 82 (as Ribera, A Saint at his Devotions);

Where acquired by "Crespin," for 16.16 gns;

Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Collector"), London, Christie's, 30 June 1937, lot 16 (as Ribera, St. Joseph);

Anonymous sale, Tours, Giraudeau, 14 November 2020, lot (as Neapolitan school, 17th century);

Where acquired by the present owner.

In this eloquent late work, Ribera depicts Saint Joseph with wizened features looking directly at the viewer. Executed circa 1640, the painting focuses on the bust-length figure holding his iconographic attributes: a carpenter’s plane and flowering rod, which marked him as Mary’s betrothed. Combining aspects of the real and supernatural, Ribera casts the saint in the guise of an icon, but with the distinctive characteristics of a portrait. The painting’s recent conservation has revealed Ribera’s nuanced application of paint: light and feathery in certain passages and executed with a loaded brush in others.

Ribera’s half-length depictions of the twelve apostles and Christ’s other intimates were especially popular among seventeenth century Genoese collectors. Here, he situates the saint against a stark background, thereby concentrating the viewer's focus on the figure’s gaunt features. The man’s unkempt hair, dirty nails, and deep-set eyes red with tears all emphasize his ascetic existence. The soft, almost golden light that falls from the left imbues Joseph with both a tangible presence and a mystical, almost supernatural aura.

We are grateful to Professor Nicola Spinosa for endorsing the attribution to Ribera and suggesting a date of execution of circa 1640.