Saint Bartholomew
Saint Bartholomew
- Artist
- Circle of Jusepe de Ribera
- Artist Dates
- 1591-1652
- Artist Nationality
- Spanish
- Title
- Saint Bartholomew
- Date
- 1643
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 77.8 x 65.1 cm (30-5/8 x 25-5/8 in)
- K Number
- K1698
- Repository
- El Paso Museum of Art
- Accession Number
- 1961.1.52
- Notes
Provenance
William Alexander Louis Stephen, 12th Duke of Hamilton [1845-1895], Hamilton Palace, Strathclyde, Scotland, (Hamilton sale, Christie's, London, 1 July 1882, no. 703); T. Banting and W. or J. Hozier. [1] (Galerie Charles Brunner, Paris). (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Rome-Florence) still in the late 1930s. (Frederick Mont, New York); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 21 February 1950; gift to El Paso Museum of Art, no. 1961.1.52. [1] Both Bantings and Hozier bought at Hamilton sale.
Catalogue Entry
Circle of Jusepe de Ribera
Saint Bartholomew
K1698
El Paso, Texas, Museum of Art (61-1-52), since 1961. Oil on closely-woven canvas. 30 5/8 x 25 5/8 in. (77.8 x 65.1 cm.). Inscribed on Bartholomew's mantle, to the right of the hand: Jusepe de Ribera español F. 1643 (?). The last number could be a 2 or 7. Restored by William Suhr while owned by Frederick Mont; restored by Modestini in 1950. Well preserved. Suida, p. 214, Cat. No. 95; El Paso, 1961, Cat. No. 44. The saint looks to the upper right, his head tilted to the left. His right hand, holding up the flaying knife of his martyrdom, emerges from voluminous toga-like drapery. Bartholomew has a long thin face and curly white hair, beard, and moustache; he is seen against a dark brown background. The canvas probably belonged to a series depicting the twelve Apostles (apostolado).(1) Longhi, who first published K1698 as a work of Ribera, related the physiognomy of Bartholomew to the concept of a 'testa di carattere', stating that Spanish artists were especially drawn to such depictions of grizzled elders. He pointed out that the facial type is close to those of Guido Reni.(2) The canvas is included by Sarthou Carreres,(3) but is not to be found in the recent Ribera monographs. Suida noted that the saint 'as a noble old man, is somewhat exceptional in Ribera's work, for though painted with this artist's realistic directness, he shows a certain idealization in a manner recalling Guido Reni. According to tradition, mutual esteem linked together these two equally important yet basically different painters.'(4) Shapley (El Paso, loc. cit.) compared the pose and expression of the saint with Ribera's full-length St. Bartholomew (Madrid, Prado, No. 1100) and with the features of his St. Andrew (Madrid, Prado) and St. Onuphrius (Leningrad, Hermitage). Although the facial type is to be found in Ribera's oeuvre – usually as SS. Onuphrius or Jerome – the painting has a certain bravura, virtuoso quality that suggests its having been painted in the manner of Ribera by an Italian master rather than by the Spanish artist himself. Provennce: Presumably this is one of two paintings of the same subject and size listed as by Ribera in the Hamilton Palace Collection (sales London, Christie's, 24 June 1882, p. 54, no. 386, purchased by T. and W. Banting; 1 July 1882, p. 92, no. 703, purchased by J. Hozier). Charles Brunner, Paris. A. Contini Bonacossi, Rome.(5) New York, Frederick Mont. Kress acquisition 1950, exhibited –Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, 1951, p. 214, Cat. No. 95.
References
(1) For the iconography of St. Bartholomew, see Réau, III, I, pp. 188 ff.; Émile Mâle, Les saints compagnons du Christ, Paris, 1958, pp. 203 ff. For the Spanish contibutuion to Apostle portrait cycles in the sixteenth century see Gustav Glück, 'Van Dycks Apostelfolge', Festschrift für Max J. Friedländer, Leipzig, 1927, pp. 130-47. (2) Roberto Longhi and August Liebmann Mayer, Gli antichi spagnuoli della collezione Contini Bonacossi, Rome, 1930, p. 29, Cat. No. 54. K1698 is listed in Gaya Nuño, p. 283, Cat. No. 2380. (3) Carlo Sarthou Carreres, J. José de Ribera y su Arte, Valencia, 1947, p. 53. (4) Suida, 1951, p. 214, Cat. No. 95. (5) Longhi and Mayer, The Old Spanish Masters from the Coniti Bonacossi Collection, Rome, 1930, p. 34, Cat. No. 54.