The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence

Workshop of Jusepe de Ribera (Spanish, 1591 - 1652)

Formerly attributed to Jusepe de Ribera (Spanish, 1591 - 1652)

Dateca. 1620

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 47 5/16 x 52 7/8 inches (120.17 x 134.3 cm)
Framed: 62 1/8 x 68 1/4 x 3 3/8 inches (157.8 x 173.36 x 8.57 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust through the Katherine Kupper Mosher Fund and exchange of the gifts of Mrs. Virginia L. Coleman, Mrs. Vida M. Frick, Mr. and Mrs. Louis S. Rothschild, Mrs. Ruth A. Hirsch in memory of Mrs. Henry A. Auerbach, Mrs. Mary E. Evans and Mrs. John E. Wheeler in memory of Harry Martin Evans, Mrs. Sadie A. May, John Levy Galleries, Dr. and Mrs. Hanns Schaeffer, Mrs. Marion Mackie, Lincoln Kirstein, Newhouse Galleries, Mrs. Edwin Willis Shields in honor of Paul Gardner, and Paul Gardner; the bequests of Mrs. Jacob L. Loose, Howard B. and Tertia F. Treadway, Mrs. Raymond A. Barrows, Minnie Long Sloan, Content Aline Johnson in memory of Augusta Adelaide Johnson, Frank Ownby, and Lester T. Sunderland

Object number88-9

SignedNone

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionThe tonsured Saint Lawrence crouches at right foreground, his left arm akimbo and his right arm held diagonally to the left by a bearded man behind, who wears a greyish-white turban. Behind the latter at upper right are two heads conversing, that at right bearded and in profile, that at left, seen frontally and cleanshaven. In the center of the composition is the grate on which Saint Lawrence was martyred, to the left of which is a low-burning fire. A bearded figure with warts, at the upper left corner of the composition, is seen bending forward, his arms supporting a bundle of faggots on his left shoulder. Beneath him, in the middleground, is another turbaned figure, with a beard, and in the lower left corner is a kneeling boy, seen in profile, who fans the fire with his breath. In his bent right hand, he holds a grayish-white tunic with red trim, presumably the saint's dalmatic.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Exposition de Tableaux Statues et Objets d’Art au Profit de l’œuvre des Orphelins d’Alsace-Lorraine, Salle des États, Louvre, Paris, 1885, no. 409.

Robert Henri and Spain, Face to Face, The Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS, September 27, 2014-January 4, 2015, no cat.

Gallery Label

Jusepe de Ribera was the most important Spanish follower of Caravaggio. Saint Lawrence, who is featured in this painting, was a Spaniard and deacon of the Church who was martyred in Rome in 258 C.E. during the persecution of Christians by Emperor Decius. Stripped of his garments, the saint turns his gaze heavenward in supplication, while executioners stoke the fire beneath the gridiron on which he will be roasted alive. The deep shadows and bold realism are typically Caravaggesque, but the artist adds a quirky, realistic touch in the prominent warts on the face of the man carrying wood to the left. The awkward placement of some of the secondary figures suggests that this work dates from early in the artist's career.

Provenance

Alejandro Maria de Aguado, Marqués de las Marismas del Guadalquivir (1784-1842), Paris, 1837-1842;

Tencé collection, Lille, by December 10, 1881;

Tencé sale, Tableaux Anciens, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 12, 1881, lot 45;

Jules Nolleval (d. 1902), Paris, by 1885;

Probably inherited by his wife, Lucile Nolleval (née Minoret, 1841-1908), Paris, 1902-1908;

Probably inherited by her niece, Suzanne Rouxel, Marquise de Rochambeau (1874-1947), 1908-1947 [1];

Rochambeau sale, Tableaux anciens, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, December 10, 1951, lot 48 [2];

Dessins et tableaux anciens des XVIe, XVIIe, XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, Ader Picard Tajan, Nouveau Drouot, Paris, December 15-16, 1986, lot 42;

With Piero Corsini Gallery, New York, 1987-1988;

Purchased from Corsini by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1988.

NOTES:

[1] Following Jules Nolleval’s ownership, the next piece of documentation on the painting’s whereabouts is the Rochambeau sale in 1951. As Nolleval’s wife, Lucile, gave most of her collection to her niece, Suzanne Rouxel, the Marquise de Rochambeau, upon her death in 1908, the painting very likely passed through the latter's hands prior to 1951.

[2] This anonymous sale is identified as "Collection de Rochambeau" in an annotated catalogue housed in the Getty Research Library, Los Angeles (see NAMA curatorial files).

Published References

Notice des Tableaux des Écoles: Espagnole, Italienne, Flammande, Française et Allemande, exposés dans la Galerie du Marquis de las Marismas (Paris, 1837), 28.

Charles Gavard and Louis Viardot, Galerie Aguado: Choix des Principaux Tableaux de la Galerie de Mr. Le Marquis de las Marismas del Guadalquivir (Paris, [1839]), unpaginated, (repro.).

Catalogue des Tableaux des Écoles Espagnoles, Italiennes, Flamande, Hollandaise, Allemande exposés dans la Galerie du Marquis de las Marismas (Paris: Paul Dumont, 1841), 36.

Charles Blanc, “Ribera,” in Histoire des peintures de toutes les écoles; école espagnole (Paris: J. Renouard, 1869), 7, (repro.).

William B. Scott, Murillo and the Spanish School of Painting (London-New York: 1873), 48-49.

Catalogue de Tableaux Anciens Formant la Collection De feu M. Tencé, de Lille (Paris: Hôtel Drouot, December 12, 1881), 27.

Exposition de tableaux, statues et objets d'art au profit de l'œuvre des orphelins d'Alsace-Lorraine, exh. cat. (Paris, 1885), 113.

Hippolyte Mireur, Dictionnaire des Ventes d'Art faites en France et à l'Étranger pendant les XVIIIme & XIXme siècles, vol. 6 (Paris: Maison D'Éditions d'œuvres artistiques, Ch. de Vincenti, 1912), 250.

Tableaux Anciens par ou attribués à: S. Botticelli, J. de Bray, Gianpietrino, H. Goltzius I. Da Imola, S. Del Piombo, J. De Ribera, etc. (Paris: Galerie Charpentier, December 10, 1951), 22.

Luis Kardúner, Alejandro Aguado, El Bienhechor (Buenos Aires: Instituto Judío-Argentino de Cultura e Información, 1953), 211.

Alfonso E. Péres Sánchez and Nicola Spinosa, L’opera completa del Ribera (Milano: Rizzoli, 1981), no. 277, pp. 130-131, as a copy of a lost original by Jusepe Ribera.

Dessins et Tableaux Anciens Porcelaines – Faïences Objets d’Art et de Très bel Ameublement: Principalement du XVIIIᵉ siècle (Paris: Ader Picard Tajan, Nouveau Drouot, December 15-16, 1986), 46.

Letter from Edward J. Sullivan to Roger Ward, May 28, 1988, NAMA curatorial files.

Donald Hoffman, “A costly rescue from obscurity: Nelson acquires 17^th-century painting,” Kansas City Star (February 26, 1989): 1E, 4E, (repro.).

“New at the Nelson: Ribera Painting is Very Important Acquisition,” Calendar of Events (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) (March 1989): 2, (repro.).

Craig Felton, “Ribera’s early years in Italy: the ‘Martyrdom of St Lawrence’ and the ‘Five Senses’,” The Burlington Magazine 133, no. 1055 (February 1991): 71-77, 80, (repro.).

Ferdinando Bologna, Battistello Caracciolo e il primo naturalismo a Napoli, exh. cat. (Naples: Electa Napoli, 1991), 101, 128, (repro.).

Jusepe de Ribera (New York: Piero Corsini, 1992), 11-14, 37-38, (repro.).

Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez and Nicola Spinosa, Jusepe de Ribera: 1591-1652, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992), 15, 17n34, 58, 169, (repro.), as by workshop of Jusepe de Ribera.

Richard P. Townsend, Botticelli to Tiepolo: Three Centuries of Italian Painting from Bob Jones University, exh. cat. (Tulsa, OK: Philbrook Museum of Art, 1992), 158n3.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 14-15, 34, 129, (repro).

Ronald Cohen, Jusepe (Gioseppe or Giuseppe) De Ribera: An Alternative View of His Origins, Apprenticeship, and Early Works (London: Trafalgar Fine Art Publications, 1996), 41n38.

Justus Lange, “Opere veramente di rara naturalezza,” Studien zum Frühwerk Jusepe de Riberas mit Katalog der Gemälde bis 1626 (Würzburg: Ergon, 2003), 210-11.

Nicola Spinosa, Ribera (Naples: Electa, 2003), no. C14, pp. 358-359, (repro.), as by workshop of Jusepe de Ribera.

Nicola Spinosa, Ribera, rev. ed. (Naples: Electa, 2006), no. C20, pp. 398, (repro.), as by workshop of Jusepe de Ribera.

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 70, (repro.).

Nicola Spinosa, Ribera. La obra completa (Madrid: Fundación Arte Hispánico, 2008), no. C10, pp. 100-101, 282n56, 340-42, 500, (repro.), as by workshop of Jusepe de Ribera.

Nigel Glendinning, Hilary Macartney, Enriqueta Harris, et al., Spanish Art in Britain and Ireland, 1750-1920: Studies in Reception in memory of Enriqueta Harris Frankfort (Woodbridge: Tamesis, 2010), 110.

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