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Lot Essay
When exhibited at the 2005 show in Salamanca and Seville, José de Ribera Bajo el signo de Caravaggio (1613-1633), Nicola Spinosa noted that this picture may have been one of the works that formed part of the renowned series of philosophers painted for Don Fernando Enríquez Afán de Ribera, 3rd Duke of Alcalá, Viceroy of Naples from 1629 until 1631. The reconstruction of the original Alcalá series, which was listed in the inventory of the contents of his house following his death in 1637, remains highly problematic. The precise number of pictures that formed that series is still contested, and the distinguishing of prime versions from autograph replicas is not straightforward. The existence, though, of multiple versions and studio replicas acknowledges the remarkable popularity of Ribera’s inventions, and the artist himself is known to have returned to the theme of depicting philosophers on other occasions, and for different patrons, including a set for the Prince of Liechtenstein (see C. Felton, ‘Ribera’s “Philosophers” for the Prince of Liechtenstein’, The Burlington Magazine, CXXVIII, no. 1004, November 1986, pp. 785-789).
The identity of the figure represented here is still not clear, but he is presumably a philosopher. As much can be assumed given that the composition is repeated in a mezzotint by Bernard Vaillant, amongst a series of other philosophers, all after Ribera, some of whom belong to the Alcalá group. Vaillant’s series is dated 1672, which is significant insofar as it indicates that he executed the prints when he was in Amsterdam, so must have had access to replicas or copies after Ribera’s originals. Further clues to the subject, and the history of its invention, may lie in inscriptions on the flask that appear on three other known replicas of the work. One is listed by Spinosa in a Spanish collection, as being of workshop quality with fractionally reduced dimensions, bearing an inscription reading ‘FINISSIMO EN CHO / TRO’ (see Spinosa, op. cit., 2006, p. 399, no. C25). Another was executed by Luca Giordano, probably in the 1650s, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano. L’opera completa, I, Naples, 1992, p. 477, fig. 101; II, pp. 255-256, no. A32). Giordano is known to have produced copies after Ribera and imitated his style so closely that their hands have frequently been confused. In the Vienna picture, the inscription appears as ‘DAL P[?]AIOSTROSI’. Ferrari and Scavizzi (op. cit.) note that there is a photograph of another old copy of this picture, in the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, where the inscription reads ‘non si dever aber…’; a handwritten annotation on that photograph suggests it may be Aristides.
The identity of the figure represented here is still not clear, but he is presumably a philosopher. As much can be assumed given that the composition is repeated in a mezzotint by Bernard Vaillant, amongst a series of other philosophers, all after Ribera, some of whom belong to the Alcalá group. Vaillant’s series is dated 1672, which is significant insofar as it indicates that he executed the prints when he was in Amsterdam, so must have had access to replicas or copies after Ribera’s originals. Further clues to the subject, and the history of its invention, may lie in inscriptions on the flask that appear on three other known replicas of the work. One is listed by Spinosa in a Spanish collection, as being of workshop quality with fractionally reduced dimensions, bearing an inscription reading ‘FINISSIMO EN CHO / TRO’ (see Spinosa, op. cit., 2006, p. 399, no. C25). Another was executed by Luca Giordano, probably in the 1650s, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano. L’opera completa, I, Naples, 1992, p. 477, fig. 101; II, pp. 255-256, no. A32). Giordano is known to have produced copies after Ribera and imitated his style so closely that their hands have frequently been confused. In the Vienna picture, the inscription appears as ‘DAL P[?]AIOSTROSI’. Ferrari and Scavizzi (op. cit.) note that there is a photograph of another old copy of this picture, in the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, where the inscription reads ‘non si dever aber…’; a handwritten annotation on that photograph suggests it may be Aristides.