| One of the most influential painters active in Valencia in the first third of the seventeenth century, Ribalta is credited with changing the prevailing mannerist style into a Spanish adaptation of Italian realism - one that resisted the powerful influence of Caravaggism found in the work of his younger contemporary, Maine Instead, Ribalta's work harks back to a mix of other Italian sources, including Luca Cambiaso and the Tuscan realists, notably Cristofano Allori, whose work he might have seen in the collection of Archbishop Ribera. A Catalan by birth, Francisco was possibly a pupil of Juan Fernandez de Navarrete at the Escorial. Francisco had moved to Madrid after the death of his parents in 1581. His earliest surviving paintings include his Crucifixion (dated 1582, St. Petersburg, Hermitage), which reflects his study of Italian sources. He also found time to study the royal collections which were rich in Venetian painting (including Titian, Sebastiano del Piombo, the Bassani), as well as Federico Zuccaro, Pellegrino Tibaldi, and Cambiaso. Studies made from these masters and from Spanish masters as such Navarrete served him well to the end of his life. In 1596 Francisco married. His son and follower, Juan (d. 1628), was born in 1696 or 1697 (depending on which scholar is cited). Ribalta moved to Valencia around 1598, where he enjoyed an active career and found frequent patronage from Juan de Ribera, the city's archbishop. Most of Ribalta's work was done for Valencia and his oeuvre contributes an important chapter in the history of seventeenth-century Valencian painting. Ribalta's most important early commission in Valencia involved his altarpieces for the Church of Algemesi (1603-4; partially destroyed in 1936). A surviving example depicting a triumphant St. James the Major astride his horse (still in situ) shows his adaptation of images of the conversion of St. Paul (mostly borrowed from Italian sources) to create an impressive religious icon. His strong grounding in Italian mannerist art reveals Ribalta to be a solid, if eclectic, artist. From 1604 to 1610 he was at work on a series of large oils for the College of the Spanish Patriarch, which Archbishop Ribera had founded. These include his Vision of St. Vincent Ferrier (dated 1604) and The Last Supper (dated 1606) for the high altar. His portraits of the archbishop are preserved in the College of the Spanish Patriarch. With Archbishop Ribera's death, Ribalta responded to the intense spiritual devotions of the local priest, Father Francisco Sim6, who was popularly regarded as a performer of miracles. Ribalta portrayed Simo's visions, such as the one preserved in the National Gallery, London, but these, like other images inspired by Simo, were banned from public view by the Inquisition in 1619. Opinions differ as to Ribalta's later development, a difference inspired by his continued eclecticism. Absence of documents from the period between 1616 and 1620, and the presence of a signed copy of Caravaggio*s* Crucifixion of St. Peter (Rome, private collection), have led some scholars to posit a Roman sojourn. More recent scholars discount this hypothesis, particularly since copies of Caravaggio*s Crucifixion were present in Valencia in Ribalta's time. A visit to Madrid around 1620 has also been suggested, where it is believed that he came into contact with the Italianate naturalism of the Carducho brothers.* At any rate, later works, such as St. Francis Comforted by a Musical Angel (dated ca. 1620, Madrid, Prado) and Christ Embracing St. Bernard (dated ca. 1625-27, Madrid, Prado), demonstrate his stylistic diversity. Both are more intensely spiritual than his earlier pictures, but the former is expressed in the vein of Tuscan piety already found in Ribalta*s earlier pictures; the latter, with its warm, if monochromatic, tonality, its sensitive tactility, and its earnest religiosity, is a particularly moving response to Titian's example, albeit a highly personal one. The St. Bernard is the highpoint of Ribalta's work for the Capuchin monastery of Sangre di Cristo in Valencia, with whom he signed a contract in 1620 and for which he produced a number of important pictures, including the St. Francis previously mentioned. His St. Francis Embracing Christ Crucified (Valencia, Museo de Bellas Artes) is among the most powerful mixtures of realism, mysticism, and fervent piety that Spanish Catholicism inspired. Though not dated, its former placement over a side altar in the Capuchin monastery argues for its dating to around 1620. His altarpiece for the charterhouse of Porta-Coeli, done in 1625, is now in the Museo de Bellas Artes, Valencia. Francisco's most important collaborator was his son Juan, who died several months after his father in 1628. Ribalta created some of the most noble and austerely pious pictures in all of Spanish painting. He brought painting in Valencia to heights it would never reach again. After his death, Valencia ceded its vitality to other Spanish centers, most notably Madrid. |
