90 - JUSEPE DE RIBERA (Jativa 1591 – Naples 1652)

JUSEPE DE RIBERA (Jativa 1591 – Naples 1652) Plato Oil on canvas, 128x102 cm Private collection Request a condition report Notes: The painting is accompanied by an expert report by Prof. Nicola Spinosa (as Jusepe de Ribera) The report prepared by Prof. Spinosa is reproduced below: "[..] It is an autograph replica, with minimal variations in certain details and dimensions, of the canvas (120x93 cm) signed and dated 1630 by Ribera, which, originating from the collections of the Monastery of San Lorenzo atEscorial and the Parisian collection of Lavaland de Roy, has been on display since 1911 at the Musée de Picardie in Amiens and has repeatedly been proposed as depicting one of the philosophers of Antiquity painted in a single series by Ribera. between 1629 and 1631, for the then viceroy of Naples, the famous Duke of Alcalá, before being transferred in part to the Museo del Prado and in part to various North American and European museums or collections, though in some cases replicas were also produced—either by the Spanish artist himself or by his collaborators and copyists, including some from Naples (Spinosa 2066, p. 294, no. A86). In the canvases of this and other series—featuring subjects and compositional and stylistic approaches that are similar—naturalistic elements are skillfully combined, such as the saints and philosophers painted by Ribera in Rome and Naples from 1614 to 1628: with results that significantly reflect a growing focus on an increasingly careful and sensitive pictorial rendering of moods and emotional reactions. Here, this attention and concrete, unaltered visual skill are also evident in certain compositions which, as in the case of the Plato under consideration here, was also painted—like the Amiens version—by the master himself, likely for another series featuring identical or related subjects, created immediately after the one for the Duke of Alcalá mentioned earlier. Bibliographic reference: N. Spinosa, Ribera. The Complete Works. Naples 2006 (Italian edition): Madrid (Spanish edition)[..] Nicola Spinosa