Juan Ribalta (1596 - 1628) "Saint Martin sharing his cloak with the beggar"

Juan Ribalta (1596 - 1628) "Saint Martin sharing his cloak with the beggar"

Oil on canvas of large dimensions. With period frame in carved and gilded wood.

The scene depicts St. Martin of Tours, a soldier of the Roman army, sharing his cloak with a beggar shivering with cold, near the city Amiens. The city is seen on the right side in the background. On the opposite side, and also in the background, a parallel scene "the sleep of St. Martin" is shown.  It represents St. Martin resting the following night with half of his cloak on a stone and next to his horse, when Christ appears to him to thank him for the gesture. Behind the scene, there is an ascending path to heaven with celestial characters and the holy spirit in the center. The iconography is related to the figure of King Martin the Humane and the site of the Carthusian monastery of Valldecrist.

The style of the work corresponds to the artist's final period between 1620 and 1624, the least documented stage, when he was painting for the town of Andilla and the "magnificent" Dream of Saint Martin for the church of the Augustinian monastery in Segorbe. The present unpublished work was requested for temporary transfer for the Museum of Fine Arts in Valencia for an exhibition on the life of Juan Ribalta in 2015. 

Size: 281 x 183 cm

Provenance:

 

Written sources speak about the s. Martin painted by Juan Ribalta for the Valldecrist Carthusian Monastery (Altura, Castelló), founded by King Martin the Humane at the end of the 14th century. This altar painting, destined for the monastery, was made in honor of the monarch. The painting was lost during the disentailment of the religious building in the 19th century. There are earlier sources that identify the work, such as the manuscript by Fray Joaquín Vivas on the "Foundation of the Royal Charterhouse of Val de Cristo", and in turn by José María Pérez in an article "Painters and paintings in the Royal Monastery of the Charterhouse of Valdecristo" of 1936. 

Acquired by a private collection in Granada.

Literature: 

• Preliminary study of style by the ICCD Laboratory D. Vicente Fernández Salmerón.
• Study of Pigments and definitive style by Mr. Andrés Sanchez L. Restorer of the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum, Artelab Laboratory.
• Study and article published by the Ex-conservator Mr. Jose Gómez Frechina of the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia.
• Mention of Fray Joaquín Vivas in a manuscript of the Foundation of the Chapel of the Cartuja de Valldecrist.
• Paintings and Painters in the Royal Monastery of the Cartuja de Valldecristo (Altura, Castelló) in 1936, M. Jose María Pérez.
• Web article "Francisco Ribalta - Juan Ribalta" in "hornacina.com" and "An unpublished painting by Joan Ribalta appears in a private collection in Granada" (17-02-14) in Levante digital newspaper.

Notes:

Juan Ribalta (1596 - 1628) was a Spanish Baroque painter who developed his career in the city of Valencia. He trained and developed in the workshop of his father, the renowned artist Francisco Ribalta. Together with his brother-in-law Vicente Castelló and Abdón Castañeda, they formed a nucleus of work that carried out numerous important commissions. He demonstrated a very singular artistic personality that seemed to lead him to become one of the most notable Spanish artists of the 18th century. The early death of Juan de Ribalta, in October 1628, at the age of thirty, a few months after his father, cut short his promising career.

From his beginnings he showed himself to be a great painter and at the age of eighteen he painted the work "Preparations for the Crucifixion" for the Monastery of San Miguel de los Reyes. It is worth noting the great complexity of the composition, as well as the mastery of the inherited mannerist models, but providing some naturalistic touches. Palomino already emphasized the degree of assimilation that he had reached with respect to the art of his father, pointing out that they were hardly distinguishable, except in the brushstroke. The arrival in Valencia in 1616 of the Murcian painter Pedro de Orrente enriched Juan Ribalta. He transmitted a taste for the anecdotal and daily life directly from the Bassano's workshop, seen in his future works.

In 1618 he married Mariana Roca de la Serna, which also allowed him to obtain an advantageous economic position and he began to be linked to circles related to literature and humanism, and he also painted some secular themes and portraits of illustrious Valencian men. In his last years he showed a more sober and rigorous painting, influenced by the increase of his naturalistic tone.

There are works by Juan Ribalta in the Prado Museum in Madrid, the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and especially the Museum of Fine Arts in Valencia. This work has been missing despite being an important piece of the early Valencian Baroque, found in a private collection in Granada and identified by Professor José Gómez Frechina, former curator of the Museum of Fine Arts in Valencia, who identified this work, "with hints of verisimilitude", as the St. Martin referred to. And finally, it was transferred and exhibited in Valencia.