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Dimensions: 43 3/4 by 36 5/8 in.; 111.1 by 93 cm

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Notes: This remarkable depiction of Saint Andrew is by the leading Baroque painter working in Naples during the 17th century, Jusepe de Ribera. The painting, which has only recently come to light, is an early work by the Spanish master, dateable to circa 1616-1618. As one of relatively few known works from this period of Ribera's production, it represents an important addition to the artist's oeuvre. We are grateful to Professor Nicola Spinosa for confirming the attribution to Ribera, following firsthand inspection, and for suggesting a date of execution of circa 1616-18, the period shortly after Ribera's arrival in Naples from Rome. It has also been suggested that this work may have been started by Ribera 1616-1618 and then put aside by the artist for several years and finished at a later date but not later than 1626. Professor Nicola Spinosa will be including this picture in his forthcoming supplement to his catalogue raisonné on the works of Ribera and would like to include this picture in the exhibition he is currently organizing with A. Perez-Sanchez for 2005 entitled The Young Ribera to be held in Salamanca, Valencia and Seville.

In 1616, after traveling in northern Italy and visiting Rome, Ribera settled in Naples, a then rich and much valued part of the Spanish Royal domain, and quickly established himself as one of the founders, and perhaps the greatest master of true Neapolitan painting. Despite no longer being in his native Spain, the artist still at this time signed his name followed by his home town Valencia, clearly identifying himself as a Spaniard. Ribera's artistic reputation was based on his unrivalled technical skill, his capacity to model figures with long, lively and confident brushstrokes and to enliven their features by means of a rich vigorous impasto. These qualities are very much in evidence in the present picture, especially in the head and hands of St. Andrew, which have a remarkably firm tactile quality.

Ribera's early style, as seen in the present picture, owes much to what the artist had learned from Caravaggio in Rome. Ribera's indebtedness to Caravaggio, was both through direct exposure to the artist's paintings as well as through his contacts with the Northern Caravaggesque artists who were working in Rome while Ribera was there. There is a strong tenebrism in this striking portrait which gives immediacy and drama to the depiction of the contemplative Saint.

Stylistically the present picture relates closely to Ribera's St. Peter and St. Paul in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg which is dated by Spinosa to the period between 1615-1616, either shortly before or just after Ribera's arrival in Naples (for illustration see N. Spinosa, Ribera, Naples 2003, p. 256, cat. no. A25, illus. pl. 33). Ribera's style in both works clearly emulates Caravaggio's penetrating eye for naturalistic detail and overpowering physical naturalism. In the present work, the figure of St. Andrew is placed in a neutral setting which enhances the mood of intimacy, enabling Ribera to communicate the essence of his piety without unnecessary detail. The light falls softly from the upper left, highlighting the face and hands of the Saint, a device that Ribera uses in a number of canvases of this period. The lighting formula, with bright passages and areas of heavy shadows merging into a uniformly dark background, is also consistent with paintings Ribera would have seen by the Carvaggisti in Rome. The volume on which Saint Andrew rests his left arm, symbolizing his epistles is treated by the artist almost as a pictorial tour de force of light and shadow. The contrast in light helps to give the composition a sense of depth in what is otherwise a rather confined picture plane, as well as highlights the extremely acutely rendered detail throughout the figure. This kind of naturalism would become a hallmark of Ribera's style throughout his life.

The life of Saint Andrew, the quiet, defender of the mysteries of the Cross, is known to us from The Golden Legend. Saint Andrew was born in Galilee and became a fisherman with his brother Simon Peter at Capernaum on the Lake of Tiberias. Having left Nazareth, after the imprisonment of John the Baptist, Jesus went to live in Capernaum and there began his active ministry. The first Apostles whom he called to join him were these brothers. Founding churches and baptizing followers as he traveled to fulfill his mission, he ultimately settled at Patras in Greece. As far as we know, this is Ribera's earliest depiction of Saint Andrew and the only version in which St. Andrew is seated. There is another half length composition of Saint Andrew in the Quadreria dei Gerolamini in Naples and a later three quarter length depiction in the Museo del Prado, Madrid (for illustrations see N. Spinosa, Ribera, Naples 2003, p. 256, cat. nos. A40, illus. pl. 52; and A120, illus. p. 286). One of Ribera's most renown masterpieces is his large, multi-figured composition representing the Martyrdom of St. Andrew, dated 1628 in the National Museum in Budapest (op cit. cat. no., A61, illus. pl. 61), an intense work that shows the Saint about to be crucified after his refusal to appease Aegeus by worshipping false idols. Set against a deep-brown background, the figure of St. Andrew is here seated, the cross of his martyrdom at left, and in his right hand he holds a fish caught in a large hook. This later allusion refers to his being a fisherman and Christ's words to Andrew and Peter: "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." The robed saint appears strong and contemplative, the light from the left defines his noble countenance. Ribera's representation of this isolated figure is incredibly emotive. His virtousity as an artist is confirmed by the incredible lifelikeness of the figure.

There is an unsigned version of this composition, probably a studio replica, in the Church of Nostra Signora del Pilastrello, in the town of Lendinara, in Rovigo, near Padua.