Currently not on view
The Poet,
ca. 1620–21
Jusepe de Ribera, 1591–1652; born Xàtiva, Spain; died Naples, Italy; active Naples and Rome, Italy
x1941-75
Ribera produced a small but distinctive group of sixteen etchings, most during a short span in the 1620s. Etching was then undergoing a revolution in Italy, moving away from its traditional role as a reproductive medium and toward an art that exhibited the inventive graphic qualities of drawing. Classically crowned with laurel leaves, this melancholic figure might represent the Roman poet Virgil, whose tomb was thought to be in Naples. According to legend, a bay tree grew on top of the tomb and continued to blossom over the centuries, while its roots forced their way through the stone, causing fissures to appear.
Information
Title
The Poet
Dates
ca. 1620–21
Maker
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
plate: 15.8 x 12.1 cm. (6 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.)
image: 15.5 x 11.8 cm. (6 1/8 x 4 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Frank Jewett Mather Jr.
Object Number
x1941-75
Place Made
Europe, Spain
Marks/Labels/Seals
Collector Bernhard Keller's stamp in blue ink, verso lower left corner: (Lugt 384)
Signed in faded red ink, lower right: L’Espagnolar [?]
Reference Numbers
Bartsch 83.10; Brown 3; Páez Ríos 1807
Materials
Techniques
Subject
- Adam vom Bartsch, "Volume 20," Le peintre graveur ... (Vienne: J. V. Degen, 1803-05)., no. 4, p. 80
- Jonathan Brown, Jusepe de Ribera: prints and drawings: [catalogue of an exhibition] The Art Museum, Princeton University, October-November 1973, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 1973). , no. 5
- Elena Páez Rios, Repertorio de grabados españoles en la Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid: Secretaría General Técnica, 1981-83)., no. 1807
