(Játiva, Valencia 1591–1652 Naples)
Heraclitus,
signed and dated lower left: Jusepe de Ribera es/pañol. F. 1634,
oil on canvas, 125 x 94.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
probably Don Fernando Enríque Afán de Ribera, 3rd Duke of Alcalá and Viceroy of Naples (1583–1637);
Cardinal Joseph Fesch (1763–1839), Rome;
Joaquín Carvallo (1869–1936), Château de Villandry, France;
sale, Tours, Hotel de Ventes, 19 November 1953, lot 75 (according to an inscription mentioned by Sotheby’s, no longer present);
Fielding Lewis Marshall Collection, London;
his sale, Bonham’s, London, 28 March 1974, lot 19 (as Jusepe de Ribera);
Private collection, Spain;
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 29 April 2015, lot 556 (as Studio of Ribera, with incorrect dating, the provenance and literature also overlooked);
where acquired by the present owner

Exhibited:
Galérie Charpentier, Paris, Exposition d’Art Ancien Espagnol organisée par la ‘Demeure Historique’, 6 June – 6 July 1925, cat. no. 90

Literature:
N. Spinosa, L’opera completa di Jusepe di Ribera, Milan 1978, p. 127, no. 231 (as studio replica);
N. Spinosa, Ribera, Naples 2003, p. 350, no. B15 (as studio replica);
N. Spinosa, Ribera, L’opera completa, Naples 2006, p. 298, mentioned under cat. no. A92 (as an autograph replica);
N. Spinosa, Ribera, La obra completa, 2008, p. 370, mentioned under cat. no. A112 (as an autograph replica)

Published by Nicola Spinosa in 2006, and again in 2008 as an autograph replica by Ribera, recent cleaning has revealed the present painting to be the finest version of this composition, and the only version to be signed, indicating that it was in all likelihood part of the celebrated collection of Fernando Enrique Afán de Ribera, third Duke of Alcalá (1583-1637).

This dramatically naturalistic depiction of the philosopher Heraclitus is a fine and important example of the bravura brushwork and brilliantly observed naturalism that made Jusepe de Ribera one of the most important painters of the Baroque period. Heraclitus (circa 535 - circa 475 BC), known as both ‘Heraclitus the Obscure’ and ‘the Weeping Philosopher’, was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. The inscription on the frame reflects two of his most famous dictums, both of which concern flux: ‘Omnia mutantur et nihil manet’ (everything changes, and nothing stays the same), and ‘bis in eundem fluvium non potes intrare’ (you cannot step into the same river twice).

Paintings of philosophers occupy a privileged position in Ribera’s long and productive career. As a young Spaniard around 1612, barely twenty years old and newly arrived in Rome, he made his mark among Caravaggio’s followers by painting the classical sages dressed in tatters instead of their traditional flowing robes. He gave them the craggy, unshaven features of the faces in the Roman crowds. The new approach was justified by classical references to wise men who disdained their apparel and appearance. That philosophers were poor and ragtag was a popular saying that Petrarch put into poetry: ‘Povera, e nuda, vai filosofia’ (Poor and nude, thou goest, Philosophy). The verse was cited in the painter’s manual, the Iconologia of Cesare Ripa, published in Rome in 1603.

In this mature work, dated 1634 and painted in Naples at the height of his powers, Ribera focuses on the portrayal of a forceful personality. Though his face and hands are weathered from hard work, there is no suggestion of decrepitude and his garments are not ragged and torn, this is a notable development from Ribera’s Roman-period philosophers. This impressive composition was previously known only from copies, and an unsigned version (sold Christie’s New York, April 2006), and a further unsigned copy in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna formerly attributed to Luca Giordano.

In their definitive study, J. Brown and R. L. Kagan (The Duke of Alcalá: His Collection and Its Evolution, in: Art Bulletin, 69, March 1987, pp. 231-255) found four philosophers by Ribera cited in the inventories of 1632-6 and 1638. They suggested that one of these four untraced paintings may have corresponded to the composition of the present Philosopher, known to the authors from the Vienna copy. Morover, as has been inferred from a set of six philosophers after Ribera which also includes the present composition, formerly in the Neapolitan collection of Conte Matarazzo di Licosa, Spinosa and others believe that they constitute a reliable visual record of a series made by Ribera for the third Duke of Alcalá, Viceroy of Naples in the late 1620’s and early 30’s. While the definitive identification of the Duke of Alcalá as the patron of the seris has yet to be confirmed by documents, it seems certain that around this time (judging from the style and format of the original compositions), Ribera painted an important series comprising at least six different philosophers, including Heraclitus.

Fernando Enrique Afán de Ribera, third Duke of Alcalá (1583-1637), was an important statesman and a highly discriminating collector of art and antiquities, which were lavishly displayed in his palace, the Casa de Pilatos in Seville. Francisco Pacheco (Arte de la Pintura, 1638) writes in awestruck tones of these treasures, which included ‘figures and heads by Ribera that seem alive, and all the others merely painted’. The possession of portraits of philosophers and men-of-letters was considered the mark of a man of means and taste.

Deeply influenced by Caravaggio, whose works and followers shaped the artistic climate of Rome during his sojourn there, Ribera adopted a style marked by bold chiaroscuro in which strong shadows and highlights afford a dramatic contrast. His works also display an intensely observed naturalism which he held to be of supreme artistic importance, and the verisimilitude and individuality of Heraclitus is testament to the fact that Ribera used a model from life without any idealisation.

Ribera’s influence on Neapolitan painting was profound. He possessed a genius for rendering the surfaces of things with a lifelike specificity and, like Caravaggio, used common models as vehicles for religious expression. His followers included Salvatore Rosa and Luca Giordano, who may also have been his pupils.

An unsigned version of this composition, then considered the prototype, was sold Christie‘s, New York, 6 April 2006 (for $520,000).

Note on the provenance:
Cardinal Joseph Fesch (1763-1839), Prince of France, was the uncle of Napoleon Bonaparte and one of the most famous art collectors of his period. He is remembered for having established the Musée Fesch in Ajaccio, which remains one of the most important Napoleonic collections of art. His collection at his death numbered over 1.800 paintings, including Michelangelo’s Entombment (National Gallery, London), Leonardo’s St. Jerome in the Wilderness (Vatican Museums), the Adoration of the Shepherds (National Gallery, Washington), and Raphael’s Mond Crucifixion (also National Gallery, London).

The painting subsequently entered the collection of Joachim Carvallo (1869–1936), a brilliant Spanish doctor and an important collector of Spanish baroque paintings, best known for his acquisition and restoration of the Chateau de Villandry and its famous gardens. Works by Zurbaran, Alonso Cano and Juan de Arellano from the Carvallo collection can still be seen at Villandry, which remains in the Carvallo family to this day.

Following its sale in France in 1953, the present painting entered the collection of Fielding Lewis Marshall in London, whose very substantial collection was dispersed in a series of sales, both in London and New York, in 1974.