item details
Overview
Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652) was a Spanish Tenebrist painter and printmaker, also known as José de Ribera and Josep de Ribera. He also was called Lo Spagnoletto ("the Little Spaniard") by his contemporaries and early writers. Ribera was a leading painter of the Spanish school, although his mature work was all done in Italy. Born near Valencia, he was living in Rome by c. 1612-13, and settled permanently in Naples in 1616, apparently to escape creditors, having lived above his means.
His earlier style is founded sometimes on Caravaggio and sometimes on the wholly diverse method of Correggio. Along with his massive and predominating shadows, he retained from first to last a great strength in local colouring. His forms, although ordinary and sometimes coarse, are correct; the impression of his works is gloomy and startling. He delighted in subjects of horror. In the early 1630s his style changed away from strong contrasts of dark and light to a more diffused and golden lighting.
He was also an important etcher, indeed the most significant Spanish printmaker before Goya, producing about 40 prints, nearly all in the 1620s. The Drunken Silenus is currently the sole Ribera print in Te Papa, but it is one of his finest and is excellently described in the British Museum catalogue, as follows:
The print is an adaptation of Ribera's 1626 painting made for Giacomo de Castro, a painter from Naples (Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples). Made two years later in 1628 it is widely regarded as Ribera's finest print, demonstrating his extraordinary powers of invention and facility through employing the etching medium to achieve myriad effects. The print is a revision of the painting and depicts in reverse the pot bellied, drunken Silenus lying on the ground in front of a wine vat raising his cup to receive wine being poured by a satyr while being crowned with a wreath by Pan who is identified by his pipes and staff at lower left. At the right, drunken putti replace the laughing faun in the painting, and the figures of the satyr and a maenad with a tambourine are rescued from obscurity to occupy a prominent position in the upper left. In the print Ribera has eliminated the conch shell, the tortoise and the snake. The differences bring a new compositional cohesion, an increased spatial depth and ultimately, the print is more successful than the painting.
Silenus possessed a special knowledge and the wisdom which is inspired by drinking wine and consequently he is most often depicted drunk. Pan, an arcadian god, son of Hermes and patron of shepherds is generally shown as having goats' horns, ears and legs. The pipe and staff at the bottom of the print are symbolic of Pan and refer to his bucolic associations and the pipes specifically to the best known story of his love for the nymph Syrinx who escaped his amorous advances after being chased down from Mount Lycaneum to the river Ladon and turned to a reed from which she was indistinguishable from the rest. Pan then cut at random several reeds to make his pipe. The pipes in Ribera's print have two references, first to identify Pan and second allude to his sexual appetite. Pan boasted that he coupled with all Dionysus's drunken maenads, one of whom appears in the upper left. Next to her is a satyr holding a staff as a phallic substitute directed to her in a suggestive manner.
This print has spawned complex interpretations of its meaning and identification of its sources, few of which acknowledge that equal to its rich iconography, Ribera demonstrates his complete mastery of the etching technique and consciously exploits its many possible effects. The most balanced reading of the etching emphasises its joyful aspects. Jonathan Brown writes that 'Ribera has magnificently captured the joyful, mindless sensuality of the bacchic orgy' (p. 30).
The humorous elements in this print abound. Silenus' obesity and slumped position indicate he is unable to move. His half open mouth and heavy eyes reflect his inebriated state as he concentrates on holding his cup steady anticipating his next drink oblivious to the fact the Pan is crowning him. The hilarity of the moment is compounded by the vine leaf that covers his genitals. Through attempting modesty the comical aspect become more pronounced. To the right, the excess of alcohol has taken its toll. One putto has collapsed while the other persists, his left hand clawing at an oversize cup and he reels back from the intake. The contrast between the child and Silenus is direct. In the case of Silenus experience alone can assure such poise. Entering from the right the ass brays heartily. The central figures are surrounded by other comical motifs, including the ass entering from the right with his open mouth and protruding teeth. The large vat reminds us there is no shortage of wine.
The signature in Latin identifies this name country, province and town on his birth and the Greek name of where the print was made Spain, Valencia, Játiva Partenope.
See:
Jonathan Brown, Jusepe de Ribera: prints and drawings (Princeton, NJ, 1973).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jusepe_de_Ribera
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art June 2017