Ribera’s Repetitions
Paper and Canvas in Seventeenth-Century Spanish Naples

By (author) Todd P. Olson

ISBN13: 9780271097541

Imprint: Pennsylvania State University Press

Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press

Format:

Published: 17/12/2024

Availability: Not yet available

Description
The seventeenth-century Valencian artist Jusepe de Ribera spent most of his career in Spanish Viceregal Naples, where he was known as “Lo Spagnoletto,” or “the Little Spaniard.” Working under the patronage of Spanish viceroys, Ribera held a special position bridging two worlds. In Ribera’s Repetitions, art historian Todd P. Olson sheds new light on the complexity of Ribera’s artwork and artistic methods and their connections to the Spanish imperial project. Drawing from a diverse range of sources, including poetry, literature, natural history, philosophy, and political history, Olson presents Ribera’s work in a broad context. He examines how Ribera’s techniques, including rotation, material decay (through etching), and repetition, influenced the artist’s drawings and paintings. Many of Ribera’s works featured scenes of physical suffering—from Saint Jerome’s corroded skin and the flayed bodies of Saint Bartholomew and Marsyas to the ragged beggar-philosophers and the eviscerated Tityus. But far from being the result of an individual sadistic predilection, Olson argues Ribera’s art was inflected by the legacies of the Reconquest of Spain and Neapolitan coloniality. Ribera’s material processes and themes, Olson shows us, were not hermetically sealed in the studio but rather engaged in a global Spanish Empire. Pathbreaking and deeply interdisciplinary, this copiously illustrated book offers art history students and scholars a means to see Ribera’s art anew.
  • History of art / art & design styles
  • History of art & design styles: c 1600 to c 1800
  • Professional & Vocational
Height:254
Width:203
Spine:25
Weight:215.00
List Price: £87.95