FRANCISCO RIBALTA | Christ carrying the cross

The panel is formed of 3 vertical planks, has 2 horizontal batons along the upper and lower margins, and is flat and stable. The paint surface is relatively dirty and the varnish slightly discoloured. The joins are visible from the front, and have small spots of associated retouching, although neither are distracting. There is also visible retouching throughout the lower quarter of the composition and scattered in the tunic of the furthest left figure. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals a thick varnish underneath which the aforementioned retouchings are visible, as well as further scattered small spots, most notably in the upper half of the cross. The painting is ready to hang with no need for further intervention. Offered in a parcel gilt frame with some scuffs.
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This dramatic panel by Ribalta is one of several of the Valenican master's copies after Sebastiano del Piombo's Christ Carrying the Cross in the Museo del Prado, Madrid.¹ Sebastiano completed his influential canvas in Rome around 1516 for the Valencian ambassador to Rome, Jerónimo Vich y Valterra. In 1521, Vich brought the painting home with him to Valencia, and it remained in his family's ancestral home where it seems likely Ribalta had the opportunity to have studied it. Sebastiano's canvas was in the Vich collection in Valencia until 1656, when it was gifted to King Philip IV.   We are grateful to José Gómez Frechina who, upon inspection of the painting in person, has endorsed the attribution to Ribalta.

1 Inv. no. P000345; see J.M Ortega Calderon, Todo El Prado, Madrid 1996, reproduced p. 349, fig. 971.