FRANCISCO RIBALTA (Solsona, Lleida, 1565 - Valencia, 1628).
"Saint Teresa crowned by Christ".
Oil on panel.
With restorations.
Work reproduced in "Lights of the Baroque". 17th century painting in Spain. 2009. Page 30 .
Measurements: 23 x 16,5 cm; 51 x 45 cm (frame).
A young Jesus with beautiful and kind features bends his face towards Saint Teresa, who, although she is not completely portrayed, seems to be on her knees. Only Jesus, who crowns Saint Teresa, looks piously at the saint, while she bows her head, directing her gaze to an external point outside the composition. The image is completed by the presence of two figures contemplating the scene, including the one behind Saint Teresa, who, by pointing to the scene with his hand, introduces a sense of spatiality into this image in which the planes merge into each other. Finally, two cherub heads fill the space in the upper right-hand corner of the work. Aesthetically, the work is close to the paintings of Francisco Ribalta, who created an image of great devotion in accordance with the precepts of the Counter-Reformation, and its naturalistic and direct aesthetic can also be appreciated, treated with a sober and restrained chromatic range that harmonises with the expressive intensity of the figures.
Originally Catalan, Ribalta began his training at El Escorial, within the Mannerism that dominated court painting at the time. After beginning his career in Madrid he moved to Valencia in 1599, probably encouraged by the patronage of the patriarch Archbishop Juan de Ribera. There he produced his first known works, the altarpieces for the church of Algemesí, which denote a style somewhere between the mannerism of the Escorial style and naturalism. During these early years of the 17th century he carried out several commissions for the archbishop, whose death in 1611 marked a certain stylistic shift in Ribalta's work. His language took on an intimate and profound slant, very much in keeping with the more pious mood of the Counter-Reformation, inspired by the solemn gravity of certain models by Sebastiano del Piombo that he knew in Valencia itself. Ribalta was able to combine these influences with a naturalistic, direct language for which he was particularly gifted. His chromaticism also became more restrained and sober, and his figures became less gesticulated and more expressive. From the second decade of the century his pupil Vicente Castelló and his son Juan Ribalta worked with him, forming a solid and prolific artistic team in which it is sometimes difficult to distinguish their individualities. Around 1618 Ribalta fell ill, and this was the beginning of his last and most mature period of his production. He painted fewer works, but his style became more intense and emotive, moving towards a profound naturalism of moving force, as can be seen in his great painting "Embrace of Saint Francis to the Crucified", painted for the Capuchins in Valencia around 1622. Six years later Francisco Ribalta died, and a few months later his son Juan also died, leaving behind guidelines in Valencian painting that would last for a long time, conditioning the development of the Baroque style. In fact, Ribalta was, together with Velázquez and Ribera, one of the main founders of the naturalist language in Spain. Works by Francisco Ribalta can be seen in the Prado Museum, the National Gallery in London, the Fine Arts Museum in Valencia, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, the Louvre, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Chi-Mei in Taiwan and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, among other art galleries.