JUSEPE DE RIBERA, CALLED LO SPAGNOLETTO | David and Goliath

Adolphe Stein (1913-1992), Paris

Madrid, Museo del Prado, Ribera 1591-1652, 1992, no. D. 32

G. Finaldi, Aspects of the Life and Work of Jusepe de Ribera, 1591- 1652, PhD diss., The Courtauld Institute of Art, 1995, no. 2;
P. Muller in Dibujos españoles en la Hispanic Society of America; del Siglo de Oro a Goya, exhib. cat., Madrid Museo del Prado, 2006-07, p. 122, under no. 28, reproduced fig. 39;
J. Brown, The Spanish manner: Drawings from Ribera to Goya, exhib. cat., New York, The Frick Collection, p. 28, under no. 3;
G. Finaldi, Jusepe de Ribera. The Drawings, Madrid 2016, pp. 139-140, no. 45, reproduced (entry by E. Cenalmor, G. Finaldi and E. Payne)

Laid down. All four corners damaged and tore. Some light staining overall especially in the upper section.
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This animated sheet was first published by Manuela Mena when it was exhibited at the Prado in 1992.  As the authors of the latest publication on Ribera drawings, the 2016 exhibition catalogue (see Literature), have pointed out, it is inscribed with a genuine signature by the artist.  They suggest, furthermore, that the sheet could be a fragment of a letter or a document, and that this very quick sketch could be a first idea for the very finished red and black chalk drawing of the same subject, in the Hispanic Society of America, datable around 1624 - a unique case of a preparatory drawing made for another drawing by the artist.¹  The quick study in the present sheet, executed in pen and ink with wash, shows Goliath in the same pose as in the New York drawing, straining to lift himself up, while raising his head to open his mouth to scream.  

^1. G. Finaldi, op. cit., Madrid 2016, pp. 140-143, no. 46, reproduced (entry by E. Cenalmor, G, Finaldi, E. Payne)