Spanish Painter and Print engraver , 1591-1652 Information concerning the life and personality of Jusepe de Ribera is sparse. He was born the son of a shoemaker in Jetiva, Valencia Province. He appears to have gone to the city of Valencia while still a boy, but nothing is known of his possible artistic training there. As an adolescent, he traveled to Italy and spent time in Lombardy. Next he was in Parma, from which, it is said, he was driven by the contentious jealousy of local artists. He located himself in Rome until an accumulation of debts forced him to flee. Finally he settled in Naples, where in 1616 he married Caterina Azzolino, the daughter of a painter, by whom he had seven children between the years 1627 and 1636. The Academy of St. Luke in Rome elected Ribera to membership in 1625, and 6 years later the Pope conferred upon him the Order of Christ. It is understandably speculated that Ribera revisited Rome for these events. Being sought after in Naples by the Church and the various Spanish viceroys who ruled there in the name of the Spanish monarchy, he dismissed the idea of returning to his homeland. He was quoted as saying that he was honored and well paid in Naples and that Spain was a cruel stepmother to its own children and a compassionate mother to foreigners. Nevertheless, he generally added his nationality when he signed his works. This practice inspired the Italians to nickname him "the Little Spaniard" (Lo Spagnoletto). The last decade of Ribera's life was one of personal struggle. He suffered from failing health, the taunts of other artists that his fame was "extinct," and difficulty in collecting payments due him. Nevertheless, he kept it from being a tragic defeat by continuing to paint until the very year of his death in Naples. Actually, he was the victim of the local politics and finances. Naples was in the throes of a severe economic depression for which the foreign rulers, the patrons of Ribera, were naturally blamed, and the desperate citizenry was rioting in the streets. It is significant that Ribera continued to receive commissions in such a time, even if there was a dearth of payments. Ribera was inventive in subject matter, ranging through visionary spectacles, biblical themes, genre, portraits, mythological subjects, and portraits of ascetics and penitents.   Related Paintings of Jose de Ribera :. | Hl. Hieronymus, San Jeronimo | touch | El sueno de Jacob | Hl. Franz von Assisi | Hl Moses |
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Bicci Di Neri
(1419-1491) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. A prolific painter of mainly religious themes, he was active mainly in Florence and in the medium of tempera. His father was Bicci di Lorenzo. His grandfather, Lorenzo di Bicci was also a painter in Florence, a pupil of Spinello Aretino. Neri di Bicci's main works include a St. John Gualbert Enthroned, with Ten Saints for the church of Santa Trinita, an Annunciation (1464) in the Florentine Academy, two altarpieces in the Diocesan Museum of San Miniato, a Madonna with Child Enthroned in the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Siena, and a Coronation of the Virgin (1472) in the abbey church at San Pietro a Ruoti (Bucine. He also painter numerous works in the area of Volterra. His journals from the years 1453-1475, including the rates of remuneration for his work, are still preserved in the library of the Uffizi Gallery. They are known as Ricordanze.
BONFIGLI, Benedetto
Italian painter, Umbrian school (b. ca. 1420, Perugia, d. 1496, Perugia) Benedetto Bonfigli (c. 1420?CJuly 8, 1496) was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento born in Perugia, and active around Umbria. He is also known as Buonfiglio. He was the teacher of the painter Pietro Perugino. His earliest work was an ' Annunciation,' originally in the Orfanelli at Perugia. His masterpiece is a series of frescoes in the Palazzo del Consiglio in the same city, which represent the Lives of St. Louis of Toulouse and St. Herculanus; they were begun in 1454 and not finished in 1496, in which year Bonfigli's will is dated. An Adoration of the Magi (c. 1460) was painted for San Domenico. A Banner (gonfalone) was painted in 1465 for the brotherhood of San Bernardino, and representing the deeds of their patron saint; another Gonfalone painted for the brotherhood of San Fiorenzo in 1476, in honor of the Virgin, who had been prayed to intercede for the cessation of the plague. He painted a Virgin of Mercy' (1478) for the church of the Commenda di Santa Croce; and several others in and around Perugia. He was much influenced by Domenico Veneziano and Pietro della Francesca. He also painted frescoes of Sant Ercolano and San Ludovico (1454) for the Palazzo del Consiglio. He died in Perugia.
GIOVANNI DA MILANO
Italian Gothic Era Painter, active 1350-1369