National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

A popular subject in Counter–Reformation Italy and Spain, Ribera's profoundly moving work portrays the apostle's final moments before he is to be flayed alive. The viewer is meant to empathize with Bartholomew, whose body seemingly bursts through the surface of the canvas, and whose outstretched arms embrace a mystical light that illuminates his flesh. His piercing eyes, open mouth, and petitioning left hand bespeak an intense communion with the divine; yet this same hand draws our attention to the instruments of his torture, symbolically positioned in the shape of a cross. Transfixed by Bartholomew's active faith, the executioner seems to have stopped short in his actions, and his furrowed brow and partially illuminated face suggest a moment of doubt, with the possibility of conversion.

The use of sharp light–dark contrasts and extreme naturalism reveal the influence of Caravaggio, whose work Ribera would have seen both in Rome and in Naples, where he lived from 1616 until the end of his life. Yet unlike Caravaggio, Ribera has enlivened the canvas with a variety of brushstrokes and textures, allowing the viewer to become further involved with this psychologically charged painting.

Inscription

lower right: Jusepe de Ribera español / F. 1634

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Bought in Italy c. 1810 by Richard Barré Dunning, Lord Ashburton (of the first creation) for his uncle-in-law George Cranstoun, Lord Corehouse [d. 1850], Corehouse, Scotland; by descent to Colonel Alstair Joseph Edgar Cranstoun of that Ilk by 1960;[1] (his sale, Sotheby's, London, 6 July 1983, no. 30). Private collection, London; (sale, Sotheby's, London, 4 July 1990, no. 83); purchased by NGA.

[1] According to the Sotheby's catalogues, which identify Dunning simply as Lord Ashburton. The Scots Peerage, 9 vols., Edinburgh, 1904-1914: 2:598, gives his full name and lists his marriage to Corehouse's niece Anne Selby Cunningham in 1805.

Exhibition History

1883
Loan Exhibition of Works by Old Masters, Edinburgh, 1883 (cat. not located).
1991
Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1991, 64-65, color repro.
1992
Jusepe de Ribera 1591-1652, Castel Sant'Elmo, Certosa di San Martino, Naples (no. 1.52, color repro); Museo del Prado, Madrid (no. 61, color repro.); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (no. 30, color repro.), 1991-1992 (cat. by Nicola Spinosa).
1999
Caravaggio's 'The Taking of Christ': Saints and Sinners in Baroque Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999, brochure, no. 3, repro.
2003
Darkness & Light: Caravaggio & His World, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2003-2004, no. 47, repro.

Bibliography

1971
Felton, Craig. "Jusepe de Ribera: A Catalogue Raisonné." 2 vols. Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1971: 2:451, no. X-87 (rejects attribution to Ribera).
1978
Spinosa, Nicola. In L'opera completa del Ribera. Milan, 1978: 129, no. 259, as Workshop of Ribera.
1991
Gingold, Diane J. and Elizabeth A.C. Weil. The Corporate Patron. New York, 1991: 108, color repro.
1991
Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1991: 64-65, color repro.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 325, color repro.
1992
Felton, Craig. "Out of the Shadows: Jusepe de Ribera." Apollo 136 (1992): 144.
1992
Jordan, William. "Naples, Madrid, New York: Ribera." [Exhibition review] The Burlington Magazine 134 (1992): 625.
1992
Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E. and Nicola Spinosa. Jusepe de Ribera, 1591-1652. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1992: 105, no. 30.
1995
NGA Guide 1995, 88, repro.
1996
De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 214-218, color repro. 215.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 156-157, no. 117, color repro.
2010
Glendinning, Nigel. "The 'Terrible Sublime': Ribera in Britain and Ireland." In Spanish Art in Britain and Ireland, 1750-1920: Studies in Reception, In Memory of Enriqueta Harris Frankfort. Edited by Nigel Glendinning and Hilary Macartney. London, 2010: 191, fig. 40.

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