(Xátiva 1591–1652 Naples)
Saint Francis in prayer,
signed and dated on the right: Jusepe de/Ribera/español/F./1648,
oil on canvas, 81.5 x 64.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of Cesáreo Aragón y Barroeta-Aldámar and his wife Blanca Carrillo de Albornoz y Elío, VI Marquesa de Casa Torres, XVII Vizcondesa de Baiguer, Madrid;
by descent to their daughter, Marquesa de Casa Riera;
by descent to their daughter, Duquesa de Medina de las Torres;
thence by descent;
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Nicola Spinosa for endorsing the attribution of the present painting.

The image of the penitent Saint Francis, dressed in a rough and worn habit, was widespread in the Counter-Reformation era, iconographically reflecting the spirit of the age (see S. Valenti Rodinò [ed.], L’immagine di San Francesco nell’età della Controriforma, exhibition catalogue, Rome 1983).

This present, unpublished, painting by Jusepe de Ribera relates to the Saint Francis in Meditation dated 1643, conserved in Palazzo Pitti in Florence (inv. 1912 no. 73), but it presents some significant variations. In the Florentine Saint Francis the protagonist holds a skull in his hand, an object of meditation on man’s mortality, while in the present painting, the saint is shown with his right hand to his chest in an expression of penitence – and holds a small crucifix in his left hand.

A native of Játiva in Spain, as a youth Jusepe de Ribera may have initially trained in the studio of Francisco Ribalta, an important figure in the transition from Mannerism to a more naturalistic style. Recent studies have clarified that Ribera arrived in Italy from Valencia in 1606 to complete his artistic training; the painter settled in Rome, where he remained for ten years (see G. Porzio, A. D’Alessandro, Ribera between Rome and Naples: new documentary evidence, in: The Burlington Magazine, 157, 2015, pp. 682–683). In 1616, the artist moved to Naples in the entourage of Don Francisco Ruiz de Castro, who had served as Philip III’s Ambassador to the Holy See since 1609 and took up the post of Viceroy of Sicily in the summer of 1616. Ribera quickly became the most important painter in the city, running a thriving workshop and leaving a lasting impression on the entire generation of new Neapolitan artists, such as Giovanni Ricca, Francesco Guarino or the so-called Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds.

The recent cleaning of the present canvas has revealed the signature and the date 1648. The work is therefore placed at the height of Ribera’s career, shortly after the artist had delivered the large copper panel of San Gennaro Emerging Unharmed from the Furnace to the Cappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro, which he had begun in 1641, and finished in 1647. Ribera also painted The Holy Family with Saints Anne and Catherine of Alexandria (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 34.73) and the Equestrian portrait of Don Juan of Austria with its backdrop of the Gulf of Naples (Madrid, Royal Palace) during the same year, 1648. These paintings are executed using light and luminous colours and reflect the influence of Giovanni Lanfranco’s work in Naples at that time. During these same years, however, Ribera was also creating darker and more dramatic images, such as the Head of the Baptist in the Museo Filangieri in Naples (inv. no. 1455), the Saint Simeon with the Infant Jesus from a private collection dated 1647 (see N. Spinosa, Ribera. L’opera completa, Naples 2003, p. 373, no. A317), and the present Saint Francis in Prayer, which may be the last painting of this subject by the artist.

This painting has long belonged to the collection of the Marquesa of Casa Torres and their descendants, as evidenced by inventories of the Casa Torres picture gallery (see J. Lacoste [ed.], Referencias Fotográficas de las obras de arte en España, Madrid 1914, no. 12169).