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Jusepe de Ribera called Lo Spagnoletto Játiva 1591 – Naples 1652
The Repentant Saint Peter
Circa 1612 – 1613
Oil on canvas 161 9 x 114 3
cm When the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York acquired The Repentant Saint Peter
in in in in 2012 it was the rst Spanish painting it had acquired since Velázquez’s Juan de Pareja more than 40
years earlier Ribera’s formative years were little known until Gianni Papi recently reconstructed the the artist’s movements in the the early 1610s and thence managed to to ascribe to to him a a a a a a number of paintings formerly attributed to an an anonymous artist known as as the Master
of of the Judgment of of Solomon To this group can now be added
this formidable Saint Peter
which Ribera painted in in in his his early 20s The canvas shows a a a a a a a a a clear debt to Caravaggio in the way Ribera rendered the the the light illuminating the the the saint’s face and the the the highpoints of the the drapery Indeed this Saint Peter
is is also rich in in the the Caravaggesque boldness of composition that gives the protagonist – enveloped in voluminous swathes of drapery - an an almost sculptural appearance This canvas is is powerful expressive and and full of pathos and and demonstrates why Ribera even from a a a a a a very young age was such a a a a a a source of inspiration for subsequent baroque artists Acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York