13 - After Jusepe de Ribera, called Lo Spagnoletto,

After Jusepe de Ribera, called Lo Spagnoletto, Spanish 1591-1652- The Penitent Saint Jerome; oil on canvas, 77 x 70 cm. Provenance: Private Collection, UK. Note: The present work is a copy after Ribera's original, now in the collection of the Museo del Prado, Madrid [P001098], which notes how, in Ribera's painting, 'the entire work communicates a sense of longing: the figure's proximity in the foreground bringing him closer to the viewer; his expectant gaze toward heaven; his tousled, unkempt hair and beard suggesting a man who lives separate from any human contact; his body leaning forward; the determination with which he grasps the cross and the rock; even the brushwork itself. Ribera has executed the painting with extraordinarily lively brushstrokes, agile and confident, creating an impastoed texture that is particularly dense in the areas of his hands and hair, which have been built up from a series of rapid, clean, distinct touches of the brush. The format of this painting is almost square, something that is infrequent in Ribera's output. The painting is signed and dated 1652, when the artist had already turned 60, and he had only a few remaining months of life. A comparison of this work with his earlier representations of Saint Jerome demonstrates the extent to which, over the course of his career, he had increasingly sought to provoke the viewer´s affective involvement, and how here he managed to achieve that objective'