Studies of Male Head in Profile,

ca. 1622

Called Lo Spagnoletto, the painter Jusepe de Ribera spent most of his life in Naples, where he settled in 1616, quickly becoming a leading and highly original exponent of Caravaggio’s bold and dramatic realism. Unlike Caravaggio, who is said to have disdained the practice of drawing, Ribera was a master draftsman whose most finished works reveal his interest in the academic rigor and classicizing naturalism of Annibale Carracci. One of three red chalk drawings by Ribera in the Museum’s collection, this superb study sheet can be dated to early in his career, given its relationship with his three etchings of ears, eyes, noses, and mouths of about 1622, which were probably intended for a drawing manual. His strong interest in facial expression and anatomical accuracy is exemplified in the man’s concentrated gaze and in the attention to minute details such as the tiny stray hairs on his chin. Ribera’s distinctively analytic approach is reflected in the subtle superimposition of four studies of different portions and views of the man’s head — including a faintly delineated eye — in which Ribera demonstrates his mastery of the medium, using the point and side of the sharpened red chalk to create sharp contours and delicate cross-hatching.