In the small, previously anonymous drawing pre-sented here, recently acquired by a private collec-tor, London (Fig. 1),1 the artist has mapped outthe features of a face in decline with devastatingrealism: plump and careworn from age, the fore-head riven by two deep wrinkles at the bridge ofthe nose; bags under the eyes; wild, untamed eye-brows; pudgy cheeks and a double chin that bulgeout from a tight headdress; and an ungraceful noseabove a wide, rather disgusting mouth. The pecu-liar subject––and the extraordinary expressiveforce with which it has been rendered––are whatled me immediately to recognize the hand of theSpanish–Neapolitan draftsman Jusepe de Ribera(1591–1652).

Although the face in the new drawing bearsthe indisputable physical characteristics of a man,the figure’s veil, tight-fitting headdress, and rosaryreveal the sitter to be an elderly nun. Turnedthree-quarters, with her head slightly lowered andfacing the spectator, she fixes her gaze towardsome ill-defined point outside the picture plane. Ifone looks more carefully, she seems to be usingonly her right eye, to judge by its mydriasis (dilat-ed pupil), while the left eye socket reveals anempty void below a scarred eyebrow, presumablythe result of a serious injury. Such precise andunusual details suggest that the sitter was someoneactually known to Ribera.

With a disconcerting command of his medi-um, Ribera has realized this grotesque likeness byalternating long, thick strokes with shorter, lighter

ones to indicate the shadows on the face. It joinsa series of other drawings of satirical heads thathave been long been recognized on stylisticgrounds as by him, including the red chalk draw-ing Grotesque Head of a Man with Two Large Tumorsin the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Fig. 2).2

What is also typical of Ribera’s whimsical spirit inthe new drawing is the paradoxical presence oftwo acrobats contorted together on the top of thewoman’s head––a feature to which I will returnlater in this note. For the moment, I would like todwell on the incredible level of skill demonstrat-ed in the drawing’s execution. The head itself,occupying roughly half the sheet, is no larger than70 x 60 mm. Yet the rendering of details (note, inparticular, the area of the eyes, the shadows castby the left nostril and the lower lip, and the furledbrows), leads me to posit the artist’s use of a mag-nifying glass while making this study.

The brutal ugliness of the woman, was it realor exuberant fantasy on the part of the master?Possibly both are true. But what makes this draw-ing special compared to other known grotesqueheads or caricatures is the more exact characteri-zation of the person who is the object of the ren-dering. In my opinion, what we have here is arare example of a true satirical portrait.

It is not, in fact, going too far to claim that themajority of Ribera’s satirical drawings should besubstantially classified as “genre” subjects ratherthan real-life portraits. In this drawing, by con-trast, the artist left obvious identifying clues that

Ribera’s Satirical Portrait of a Nun

VIVIANA FARINA

471

471

enable the viewer to interpret the circumstancesand social status of the woman portrayed. Riberamoreover seems intentionally to have chosen apose of humility that actually characterizes an eld-erly woman from a religious order, restricted byher severe, rather morose nature. The first level inreading the image is therefore serious. Then,however, as we raise our gaze and discover the lit-tle figures on the top of her head, our perceptionchanges and we realize that Ribera is also pokingfun at the woman.

That balance is reversed in the celebratedFitzwilliam drawing (Fig. 2), in which the actuallikeness of the protagonist plays a secondary roleto the grotesque peculiarities. Most of all, we areaware of the figure’s striking physical defects,regardless of whether they are exaggerated. Inaddition to two enormous, fatty protuberances onhis neck, the figure has pointed, fawn-like ears,and, as is so often the case in Ribera’s grotesqueheads (including those in his paintings), a smatter-ing of hairy warts. Compare, for instance,

472472

Figure 1

Here attributed toJUSEPE DE

RIBERA

Satirical Portrait of a Nun

London, PrivateCollection

Ribera’s two etchings, the so-called SmallGrotesque Head,3 which is signed and dated 1622and provides a chronological point of referencefor this type of work, and the so-called LargeGrotesque Head (Fig. 3),4 with its extensive wartsand similar large, pendulous tumors hanging fromthe figure’s head. These tumors have long beendescribed as large goiters (symptomatic of hyper-thyroidism, which causes an enlarged thyroidgland) and have been linked to the engraved car-icature “La Potente Iunone,” or Goitered Juno, inthe series of Pagan Deities engraved c. 1580 byMartino Rota (c. 1520–1583).5 However, they arenow thought to be an extreme manifestation ofthe genetic disorder known as Von Reckling-hausen’s neurofibromatosis (NF1) or Von Reck-linghausen’s disease.6 This affliction, named in1882 for the German pathologist Frederick vonRecklinghausen (1833–1910), has a rich pictorialhistory, dating back to the thirteenth century.7

The hereditary disorder––which produces small,wart-like growths as well as large, disfiguring

tumors called neurofibromas––was historicallywidespread in southern Italy, where Riberawould have encountered individuals sufferingfrom it. Figures with goiters and neurofibromasbegan to appear as motifs in art works soon afterCaravaggio (1571–1610) depicted an old womanwith a neck tumor or goiter as a bystander in theCrucifixion of St. Andrew (now Cleveland Museumof Art),8 which was painted in 1607 for JuanAlonso Pimentel de Herrera, 5th Duke deBenavente (d. 1621), and taken by him fromNaples to Spain in 1610.9

Whether the etched Small Grotesque Head andthe Large Grotesque Head and the Fitzwilliam redchalk drawing are accurate representations of realafflictions or to some extent artistic exaggerations,they might still be defined as unidealized charac-ter “types”––what the Dutch call tronies––ratherthan satirical portraits of individuals. The same istrue, in my opinion, of other drawings ofgrotesque heads, such as the Grotesque Head

473473

Figure 3

JUSEPE DE

RIBERA

Large GrotesqueHead

Etching andengraving

London, BritishMuseum

Figure 2

JUSEPE DE

RIBERA

Grotesque Head ofa Man with TwoLarge Tumors

Cambridge,Fitzwilliam Museum

Wearing a Hood, in Profile to the Left, last seen onthe New York art market in 2013,10 and the Headof a Man with Grotesque Features, in Profile to theLeft, in the Prado, Madrid (Fig. 4).11 The lattermust date from the artist’s maturity, c. 1628, bear-ing in mind that the man could be a first idea forthe drawing An Oriental Potentate Accompanied byHis Halberd-bearer in the J. Paul Getty Museum,Los Angeles (Fig. 5), which bears an old inscrip-tion with a presumably reliable date (1628).12

The affinity between this latter drawing andthe Satirical Portrait of a Nun under discussion here,leaving aside the fact that the Getty sheet shows afull-length figure and a detailed rendering of hiscostume, stems from the fact that the preciselydescribed sitter remains within the satirical por-trait genre rather than being a character type.From this same point of view, I would consider

474474

Figure 4

JUSEPE DE

RIBERA

Head of a Manwith GrotesqueFeatures, in Profileto the Left

Madrid, MuseoNacional del Prado

Figure 5

JUSEPE DE

RIBERA

An OrientalPotentateAccompanied byHis Halberd-bearer

Los Angeles, J. PaulGetty Museum

the only true parallel to the new sheet to be theGrotesque Head of a Bearded Man, with Eyes and Furof a Dog or Monkey, rediscovered by NicholasTurner in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Fig.6),13 a drawing that bears an old attribution toRibera in the hand of the collector FrancescoMaria Gabburri (1676–1742), who commissionedthe elaborate ornamental border into which thecaricature portrait is inserted. This is an extraordi-nary portrait, which I believe may well be a like-ness of some court jester. It is reminiscent of thecentral figure in the triple portrait by AgostinoCarracci (1557–1602), Hairy Henry, Mad Pietro,and Amon the Dwarf, in the Museo Nazionale diCapodimonte, Naples,14 which records the mon-strous appearance of Henri (Arrigo) Gonzalez,who was the eldest son of a family who sufferedfrom the congenital “werewolf syndrome,” hyper-tricosis universalis congenita, and who served in theRoman court of Cardinal Odoardo Farnese(1573–1626). The Oxford drawing could havebeen conceived by Ribera as a satirical portrait,made at the same time, and in the same spirit, ashis celebrated likeness of another sufferer ofabnormal hair growth, the Portrait of MaddalenaVentura with Her Husband (the Bearded Woman),which he painted in January 1631 for DonFernando Afán de Ribera y Enríquez, Viceroy ofNaples and 3rd Duke of Alcalá (1583–1637).15

The Satirical Portrait of a Nun can be related toanother recent addition to Ribera’s drawn oeuvre,namely the Grotesque Head of a Smiling Black Man,now in a private collection (Fig. 7).16 When thelatter sheet first appeared on the Paris art marketin 2003, it was catalogued as anonymous six-teenth-century Bolognese School, which isindicative of the young Ribera’s artistic formula-tion in Emilia before his arrival in Naples in 1616.The drawing is, in my opinion, a rare survivalfrom the 1610s rather than the late 1630s, as hasbeen proposed until now. It would seem then toprecede by a decade (if not more) the SatiricalPortrait of a Nun, whose handling suggests that itshould be assigned to the mid-1620s. Despite thepossible differences in date, the two sheets presentsimilarities, such as the sitter’s large mouth and the

475475

presence of acrobats placed at the top of the head.What, in fact, was the symbolic purpose of

these strange Lilliputian figures, which can also beseen in other drawings by Ribera, such as the Manin a Toga, with a Little Man on His Head, Holding aBanner, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NewYork,17 the Gentleman in a Burlesque Mask Assailedby Six Small Climbing Figures (Fantasy Scene),recently with José de la Mano, Madrid,18 and theGrotesque Head of a Man in a Fantastic Hat withClimbing Figures, formerly in the PennsylvaniaAcademy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and nowin the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Fig. 8)?19 It is

Figure 6

JUSEPE DE

RIBERA

Grotesque Head ofa Bearded Man,with Eyes and Furof a Dog orMonkey

Oxford, AshmoleanMuseum

476476

Figure 8

JUSEPE DE

RIBERA

Grotesque Head of a Man in aFantastic Hat withClimbing Figures

PhiladelphiaMuseum of Art

Figure 7

JUSEPE DE

RIBERA

Grotesque Head of a Smiling BlackMan

Private Collection

my view that they are essentially a game, a wittyinvention by an artist who was showing off hiscreative ability. They combine the Mannerist spir-it of the previous century with elements fromdaily life, as might be seen in the early seven-teenth century in many a city square, with theirspectacles of performers and acrobats.

Besides their conceptual similarity to the threesheets just mentioned, there is one further distinc-tive feature that links the Grotesque Head of aSmiling Black Man and the Satirical Portrait of aNun. I suspect that both were inspired by sculp-tural sources, or at least by preparatory drawingsmade for the applied arts, which Ribera thenwent on to adapt with great originality. As I havealready suggested,20 the elegantly contorted figuresarranged on the man’s pointed jester’s hat in theGrotesque Head of a Smiling Black Man seem to meto resemble those decorating goldsmiths’ caskets,such as the so-called Farnese Casket in the Museodi Capodimonte, designed by Francesco Salviati(1510–1563) and executed by Manno di SebastianoSbarri (fl. 1548–61) and Giovanni Bernardi (1494–1553).21

The elegant Mannerist elements of drawingssuch as Salviati’s Study for a Casket in the Uffizi,Florence (Fig. 9),22 continued to exert a profoundinfluence on artists and the art production in laterperiods. Francesco Salviati was an artist whosework Ribera would have admired and whoseoriginal inventions he could have had access to asa young artist in the early 1610s, when he workedunder the protection of Mario Farnese (d. 1619)between Rome and Parma, and possibly also later,during brief stays in Rome, which I am certaintook place, though they are undocumented.23

Salviati’s all’antica inventions may well havebeen a source of inspiration for the two acrobatsstretched out on the top of the head of the nun(Fig. 1). The first acrobat takes advantage of theborder sewn onto the edge of the woman’s head-dress, using it as a parapet on which to place hisfeet, arching his body so that its curve follows theshape of her head and opening his arms, extend-ing his hand toward the left side of her head; thesecond acrobat, precariously dangling in mid-air,

seems hooked by his feet to the head of his com-panion, having performed a daring backwardssomersault after grasping the veil of the nun.

Among the kind of drawings of grotesque,fantasy ornaments and motifs by Salviati thatmight have influenced Ribera is a sheet withGrotesque Studies, in the Louvre, Paris (Fig. 10).24

At the lower left of that sheet, Salviati inserted adesign for a canopy or helmet on which two nudeyouths are placed in extreme poses and linked byropes (like the tightropes in some of Ribera’sdrawings) to an ornamental Janus-like motif fea-turing a wild boar and human head. A similarcontorted figure of a mermaid-like siren featuresas the main motif of a burgonet in the Metro-politan Museum of Art, New York (Fig. 11),25

signed and dated 1543 by the famous Milanesearmorer Filippo Negroli (c. 1510–1579), anotherartist deeply indebted to Salviati’s designs. It is notmy intention to establish a direct connectionbetween this piece of armor and the SatiricalPortrait of a Nun, but it is perhaps no coincidencethat a helmet caught my attention, taking intoaccount the fact that contorted acrobats are usedin the drawing by Ribera to create a strange sortof headgear for a religious woman.

My proposed dating of the Satirical Portrait of aNun to the mid-1620s on stylistic grounds may

477477

Figure 9

FRANCESCO

SALVIATI

Study for a Casket

Florence, GabinettoDisegni e Stampedegli Uffizi

478478

help us to identify the nun portrayed. BetweenSeptember 1621 and the end of 1628, the firstpatron to give Ribera a public commission wasSuor Eufrosina, born the noblewoman DonnaVittoria de Silva, who withdrew to a monasticlife, after having refused to marry Don EmilioCaracciolo, Conte di Biccari; she was the founderand Mother Superior of the Franciscan convent ofSS. Trinità delle Monache, Naples.26 Another res-ident of the convent was Suor Orsola Grimaldi,the stepdaughter of the Genoese noblemanMarcantonio Doria (b. c. 1570), who in 1610commissioned Caravaggio to paint the Martyrdomof St. Ursula in her honor.27 The same noblemanand patron signed a contract in 1623 with SuorEufrosina to have the entire church and its fur-nishings constructed in marble,28 and he also hired

Ribera’s father-in-law, the Sicilian painterGiovanni Bernardino Azzolino (1572–1645), asthe principal fresco decorator for the monasticcomplex.29 Meanwhile, Jusepe de Ribera,between 1626 and c. 1628, had obtained a com-mission from the nuns to paint two altarpieces forthe same convent: the great Terrestrial Trinity withSaints and the St. Jerome and the Angel of Justice(both now Naples, Museo di Capodimonte).30

The year 1625, the height of good relationsbetween Marcantonio Doria, Suor Eufrosina, andthe workshop of Azzolino, also happens to bewhen Ribera was employed in the studio. On 14November of that year, Marcantonio Doria wroteto Mother Eufrosina, encouraging her to be sup-portive of the painter Azzolino, whose son hehad, in fact, just received in Genoa after theyoung man had fallen ill;31 this is almost certainlya reference to Ribera’s brother-in-law and docu-mented copyist of his work, Gabriele Azzolino(dates unknown), who already in March of thatsame year worked as an independent collaboratorin the ecclesiastical works.32 It is likely thatGiovanni Bernardino Azzolino would have exe-cuted his little picture in wax of St. Eufrosina with

Figure 10 (left)

FRANCESCO

SALVIATI

Grotesque Studies

Paris, Musée duLouvre, Départementdes Arts Graphiques

Figure 11 (right)

FILIPPO NEGROLI

Burgonet

New York,MetropolitanMuseum of Art

479479

the Virgin, and a Putto Carrying a Martyr’s Palm inhonor of the Mother Superior of the Trinità delleMonache, which Bernardo De Dominici saw acentury later in the Casa Barbarese, together withother examples (in wax) in which the Sicilianartist excelled.33

Doria’s letter gains added value when one real-izes that the Genoese nobleman had a particularlystrong and determined sparring partner in the per-son of the Mother Superior, who in initial nego-tiations had refused to accept the consignment ofmarbles, asking for a second delivery, which wassent to Naples between October 1624 and 1626.34

This was the very moment that Ribera was com-pleting his St. Jerome and the Angel of Justice. Whoknows if, for his private use, he might not haveamused himself by drawing the severe, resolutecountenance of Suor Eufrosina. Since she found-ed the convent in 1608, by the mid-1620s––theperiod during which I have proposed to date thissheet––she would have been a mature woman.

Viviana Farina, the author of a new monograph onRibera (reviewed on pp. 531–38), is an independentart historian based in Naples.

NOTES

1. Red chalk; 120 x 92 mm. PROVENANCE: Private collec-tion (as anonymous); Artur Ramon Art, Barcelona; fromwhom purchased by the present owner, 2014.

2. Inv. no. PD.26-1958. Red chalk; 207 x 146 mm; seeJonathan Brown, Jusepe de Ribera: Prints and Drawings,exh. cat., Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum,and Cambridge, MA, Fogg Art Museum, 1973–74, no.4, repr.; Alfonso Pérez Sánchez and Nicola Spinosa, eds.,Jusepe de Ribera (1591– 1652), exh. cat., Naples, CastelSant’Elmo, 1992, p. 330, no. 2.3 (entry by ManuelaMena Marqués), repr.; and David Scrase, Italian Drawingsat the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Together withSpanish Drawings, Cambridge, 2011, no. 824, repr. (incolor).

3. Etching; 145 x 110 mm; see Princeton and Cambridge,MA, 1973–74, no. 10, repr.

4. London, British Museum, inv. no. W,6.111 (etching andengraving; 215 x 140 mm); see ibid., no. 11, repr.

5. See Craig Felton and William B. Jordan, eds., Jusepe deRibera, lo Spagnoletto (1591–1652), exh. cat., Fort Worth,Kimbell Art Museum, 1982, p. 75 (essay by Jonathan

Brown) and fig. 63; and Gabriele Finaldi, “Dibujos ined-ito y otros poco conocidos de Jusepe de Ribera,” Boletíndel Museo del Prado, 23, 2005, p. 42, n. 6.

6. See Jonathan Brown (Princeton and Cambridge 1973–74, p. 72); and Mark P. McDonald, Renaissance to Goya:Prints and Drawings from Spain, exh. cat., London, BritishMuseum, 2012–13, p. 180.

7. On the pictorial history of the disorder, see S. Brosius,“A History of Von Recklinghausen’s NF1,” Journal of theHistory of the Neurosciences, 19, no. 4, 2010, pp. 333–48.

8. Inv. no. 1976.2 (oil on canvas; 233.5 x 184 cm); seewww.clevelandart.org.

9. That everyday life was a source of inspiration for Riberawas emphasized by Jonathan Brown (see Naples 1992, p.364), without, however, drawing a connection with the“trend” for representing physical disorders that emergedin Naples after the appearance of Caravaggio’s painting.

10. Pen and brown ink; 251 x 165 mm; sale, New York,Christie’s, 31 January 2013, lot 72, repr. (in color); seeCiviltà del Seicento a Napoli, exh. cat., 2 vols., Naples,Museo di Capodimonte, 1984–85, vol. 2, no. 3.61 (entryby Julien Stock), repr.; and Alfonso Pérez Sánchez andNicola Spinosa, eds., Jusepe de Ribera (1591–1652), exh.cat., New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992, no.92 (entry by Rossana Muzii), repr. Normally dated around1622, the drawing is, in my view, later (see Viviana Farina,Al sole e all’ombra di Ribera: Questioni di pittura e disegno aNapoli nella prima metà del Seicento, 1, Castellammare diStabia, 2014, p. 225, n. 132).

11. Inv. no. D-6239. Point of the brush and red ink; 254 x183 mm; see Finaldi 2005, fig. 1 (datable in the 1620s);Nicola Spinosa, ed., Ritorno al Barocco da Caravaggio aVanvitelli, exh. cat., 2 vols., Naples, Museo Nazionale diCapodimonte, 2009–10, vol. 2, no. 3.16 (entry byCristiana Romalli), repr. (in color); Cristiana Romalli,“Alcuni fogli del Seicento: Osservazioni sul mercato edisegni in collezioni,” in Francesco Solinas and SebastianSchütze, eds., Le Dessin napolitain: Actes du colloque inter-national, Paris, 6–8 mars 2008, Rome, 2010, p. 319;Jonathan Brown et al., The Spanish Manner: Drawings fromRibera to Goya, exh. cat., New York, Frick Collection,2010, no. 6 (entry by Jonathan Brown), repr. (in color);and Farina 2014, p. 49, fig. 38 (in color), and p. 65.

12. Inv. no. 91.GA.56. Point of the brush and red ink;squared in pen and brown ink; 230 x 135 mm; see NewYork 1992, no. 99a (entry by Manuela Mena Marqués),repr. (in color). Inscribed at lower edge, in brown ink,Joseph de Ribera. f t. 1628. / Josepe ana. Mena believed thisinscription to be an autograph signature and date, but thiswas corrected by Finaldi (2005, p. 42, n. 2). The personprobably responsible for this detailed annotation, gener-ally considered reliable, was the Spanish artist–collectorFrancisco de Solís (1620–1684); see Farina 2014, pp. 61,224, n. 122.

13. Inv. no. WA 1863.1480 [formerly KTP I, 613]. Brush andbrown wash; 175 x 180 mm; silhouetted and laid downon another sheet with architectural framework in blackchalk, pen and black ink, with gray, pale brown, pink, andocher washes; 371 x 254 mm; see Nicholas Turner, “AGrotesque Head by Jusepe de Ribera in the AshmoleanMuseum, Oxford,” Master Drawings, 48, no. 4, pp.456–62, fig. 2 (as late 1630s) and front cover (in color).

14. Inv. no. Q 369 (oil on canvas; 101 x 133 cm); see NicolaSpinosa, ed., Museo e Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte.La collezione Farnese: La scuola emiliana, i dipinti e i disegni,Naples, 1994, pp. 109–10, repr.

15. Toledo, Hospital de Tavera (oil on canvas; 196 x 127cm); see Nicola Spinosa, Ribera, la obra completa, Madrid,2008, no. A141, repr. (in color).

16. Brush and brown and gray washes; 194 x 254 mm; seeTurner 2004, fig. 3 (in color); Finaldi 2005, p. 42, n. 4;Naples 2009, vol. 2, no. 3.18 (entry by CristianaRomalli), repr. (in color); and Farina 2014, p. 47, fig. 35(in color), and pp. 63, 65–66. The attribution to Riberawas first suggested by Nicholas Turner (“Another Studyfor Ribera’s Early Adoration of the Magi,” Apollo, 119, no.503, 2004, pp. 30–32) and was subsequently offered thedrawing for sale under that name by Edoardo Testori andJean-Luc Baroni (see Jean-Luc Baroni, Ltd., AnExhibition of Master Drawings and Oil Sketches, exh. cat.,New York, Adam Williams Fine Art Ltd., and London,Jean-Luc Baroni, Ltd., 2005, no. 12, repr. [in color]).

17. Inv. no. 1981.395. Pen and brown ink, with brownwash; 212 x 100 mm; see Fort Worth 1982, fig. 102;New York 1992, no. 114 (entry by Manuela MenaMarqués), repr.; Andrea Bayer, “A Note on Ribera’sDrawing of Niccolò Simonelli,” Metropolitan MuseumJournal, 30, 1995, pp. 73–80; New York 2010, no. 8(entry by Jonathan Brown), repr. (in color); and Farina2014, p. 50, fig. 39 (in color), and pp. 61, 63.

18. Pen and dark brown ink; 184 x 100 mm; see New York1992, no. 99b (entry by Manuela Mena Marqués), repr.(in color); Fecit V: Spanish Old Master & Modern Drawings,exh. cat., Madrid, José de la Mano, [2012], no. 5, repr.(in color); and Farina 2014, p. 50, fig. 40 (in color), andpp. 63–64.

19. Inv. no. 1984-56-8. Pen and brown and black ink, withgray wash, over black chalk; 170 x 105 mm; see FortWorth 1982, fig. 101; New York 2010, no. 9 (entry byJonathan Brown), repr. (in color); and Farina 2014, p. 48,fig. 37 (in color). Inscribed at lower left edge, by PadreSebastiano Resta (1635–1714), in black ink, Orig:l deSpagnoletto, da Napoli (see ibid., p. 224, n. 123).

20. See Farina 2014, p. 66.

21. Inv. no. 10507 (silver gilt, smalt, rock crystal, and lapislazuli; 49 x 39.2 x 23.5 cm [chest] 42.3 x 26 x 23.5 cm[cover]); see Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte.

La Collezione Farnese: Le arti decorative, Naples, 1996, pp.134–35, no. 4.3 (entry by Linda Martino), repr. (incolor).

22. Inv. no. 1612 E. Pen and brown ink, with brown wash,over traces of black chalk; 180 x 230 mm; see CatherineMonbeig Goguel, ed., Francesco Salviati o la Bella Maniera,exh. cat., Rome, Villa Medici, and Paris, Musée duLouvre, 1998, no. 96 (entry by C. Riebesell), repr.

23. This would also explain the reminiscences of the work ofPerino del Vaga (1501–1547) detectable in Ribera’s cycleof Prophets in the Certosa di S. Martino, Naples (1638);see Farina 2014, p. 113.

24. Inv. no. RF 536. Pen and brown ink, with brown wash,over traces of black chalk; 260 x 192 mm; see Rome andParis 1998, no. 110 (entry by Philip Costamagna), repr.(in color).

25. Inv. no. 17.90.1720 (gold-patinated steel; 23.13 x 18.57cm); for color images of the burgonet from eight differ-ent viewpoints, see www.metmuseum.org/collection; for fur-ther information, see http://www.metmuseum.org/research/metpublications/Heroic_Armor_of_the_Italian_Renaissance_Filippo_Negroli_and_his_Contemporaries; and S. Leydi,“Filippo Negroli,” in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 78,Rome, 2013.

26. On the noblewoman, see Luigi D’Afflitto, Guida per icuriosi e per i viaggiatori che vengono dalla città di Napoli, 2vols., Naples, 1834, vol. 1, p. 90; and Carlo Celano,Notizie del bello, dell’antico e del curioso della città diNapoli…, 10 vols., Naples, 1692, vol. 6, pp. 9–10.

27. Naples, Galleria di Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano (oil on can-vas; 154 x 178 cm); see Helen Langdon, Caravaggio: ALife, London, 2012, pl. 42 (in color).

28. See Paola D’Agostino, Cosimo Fanzago scultore, Naples,2011, p. 77–78 and n. 167.

29. Azzolino was active in the church between 1623 and1631; see Bernardo De Dominici, Vite de’ pittori, scultoried architetti napoletani, 3 vols., Naples, 1742–45; ed. byFiorella Sricchia Santoro and Andrea Zezza, 3 vols.,Naples 2003–8, vol. 3, pt. 1, pp. 242–43, nn. 26, 29 (textby Viviana Farina); and Farina 2014, pp. 236–37, n. 436.

30. Inv. nos. Q 1930, n. 1793 (oil on canvas; 393 x 262 cm);and Q 1930, n. 312 (oil on canvas; 262 x 164 cm); seeSpinosa 2008, nos. A96 and A87, both repr. (in color).

31. For the letter, see A. Delfino, “Documenti inediti sui pit-tori del ’600 tratti dall’Archivio Storico del Banco di Napoli(A. S. B. N.) e dall’Archivio di Stato di Napoli (A. S. N.),”in Ricerche sul ’600 Napoletano, Milan, 1987, pp. 97–98.

32. See Farina 2014, p. 232, n. 329.

33. See De Dominici 1742–45, vol. 1, pt. 2, p. 908.

34. See Note 31 above.

480480