48. JUSEPE DE RIBERA (SPAIN, XÀTIVA 1591 - 1652 NAPLES, ITALY). The Flagellation of Christ.

Oil on canvas, 125 x 98 cm
Bears a monogram at the bottom GR (added).

EXPERTISE
Cabinet Turquin, Stéphane Pinta, Paris

PROVENANCE
Collection of the art dealer Mr Gösta Stenman, Stockholm, Sweden; listed in his 1936 catalogue 66 Old Masters as a work by Guido Reni (No. 47 1/2). The painting is also in Gösta Stenman’s 1938 and 1942 catalogue.
Swedish private collection, inherited by the current owner.

EXHIBITION
Gösta Stenmans konstsalong, "66 Old Masters", Stockholm, Sweden, 1936.
Gösta Stenmans konstsalong, "Old Master Paintings", Storgatan 10, Stockholm, Sweden, 1942.

Our painting by Ribera is a discovery, previously unpublished, but its composition was already known through a copy preserved in the Escalar Collection in Rome. We can date it to around 1612–1616, during the exciting period when the artist left Rome and settled in Naples, a stylistic transition well studied in the recent exhibition at the Petit Palais in Paris Ribera: Darkness and Light. #2

The artist’s Roman career has been rediscovered over the last 25 years, thanks to the inclusion of a group of works previously attributed to The Master of the Judgment of Solomon into his corpus. Between 1605–1606 and 1612, Ribera assimilated Caravaggio’s revolutionary realism, emphasizing its brutality, using dramatic flashes of light, and borrowing the broad red draperies from the Lombard master. He was also influenced by Bartolomeo Manfredi. A key work from this period, bridging his time in Rome and his early years in Naples, is Saint Peter and Saint Paul, signed and preserved at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Strasbourg.
Upon arriving in Naples, Ribera came into direct contact with the masterpieces Caravaggio had left behind ten years earlier, particularly The Seven Acts of Mercy (Pio Monte della Misericordia) and The Flagellation of Christ (originally in the Church of San Domenico Maggiore, now in the Museo di Capodimonte).
In this painting, Ribera provides his own interpretation of the subject—somewhere between the moment Christ is scourged and when he is presented to the people as Ecce Homo #3. The closest comparison to our painting is The Crowning with Thorns in the Casa de Alba Foundation in Seville #4, dated around 1616–1617.
The composition is simple yet perfect, divided by a diagonal that separates Christ from his torturers. Christ’s figure is sharply illuminated by a light coming from an opposing diagonal. His expression is calm and resigned, filled with great humanity, contrasting with the aggressive faces of his torturers, who are relegated to the shadows. In the lower right corner, a half-figure closes the composition at a right angle.
As in Caravaggio’s The Flagellation of Christ (Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen), Christ does not seem affected by the blows—no visible marks suggest his suffering. The perizonium (loincloth), a true masterpiece, acts as a signature for Ribera, marking the transition between his Roman and Neapolitan periods.

We thank Professor Nicola Spinosa for confirming the attribution of this work to Ribera, based on a digital photograph, on March 13, 2025.

An Exceptional Career in Naples
Jusepe de Ribera was the dominant artist in 17th-century Neapolitan art. Upon his arrival, he quickly established himself with support from the city’s elites, including the Spanish viceroy, the Count of Osuna. He also received commissions from his native Spain.
Starting from a highly personal Caravaggesque realism, he evolved by incorporating influences from both the Roman and Venetian schools of painting. Thirty years later, his palette had brightened significantly, while he remained faithful to the naturalism of his youth.

Ribera created many large altarpieces for churches in Naples, as well as devotional paintings for collectors, subjects from antiquity and literature (such as portraits of philosophers and mythological themes), and burlesque and picaresque subjects such as The Clubfoot (Musée du Louvre, Paris) and The Bearded Woman (Museo del Prado, Madrid). He even painted landscapes and still life paintings, demonstrating the variety of his production. His psychologically rich figures are always embedded in monumental compositions, supported by a powerful graphic style and a warm, golden light that highlights the figures.

Ribera’s works are now housed in many of the world’s leading museums of European art.

#1 Nicola Spinosa, Ribera. La obra completa, Madrid, Fundación Arte Hispánico, 2008, p. 499, C-8.
#2 Annick Lemoine, Maïté Metz, Ribera: Darkness and Light, exhibition catalog (November 4 - February 23, 2025), Paris, Flammarion, 2024.
#3 Ecce Homo by Caravaggio (Icon Trust, Spain), recently rediscovered, also has a Neapolitan provenance. (See image)
#4 Expo op. cit, note 2, p. 150-151, Cat. 25 - Spinosa, op. cit., p. 345, A73.
Image: Fundaciòn Casa de Alba, Seville. (See image).