JOSÉ DE RIBERA Y TALLER (Xátiva, Valencia, 1591 - Naples, 1652)."The Smell".Oil on canvas. Relined.

JOSÉ DE RIBERA Y TALLER (Xátiva, Valencia, 1591 - Naples, 1652).
"The Smell".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Size: 112 x 89,5 cm; 126,5 x 104 cm (frame).
In this work the artist has captured the image in a naturalistic style inspired by the one who takes the violent tenebrist illumination and the humble figures. The piece faithfully follows the work "El Olfato", which was made between 1613 and 1616 by José Ribera during his stay in Rome, following the style inspired by Caravaggio and Flemish painting. The piece currently belongs to the private collection of Abelló. In the piece we can see how the influence of Caravaggio is combined with aesthetic characteristics typical of Flemish art, of which the artist was aware thanks to his close relationship with his neighbours on Via Margutta. The iconography of the image has undergone a major shift away from the elegant and complex visions of the Five Senses painted in the Low Countries, which are among the most famous. The Valencian master depicts a beggar with an onion in his hands that makes him cry. On the table we find another onion and a head of garlic, the bad smell of which contrasts with the orange branch next to them. The intense, direct lighting accentuates the contrasts of light and shadow and creates an accentuated diagonal on the wall, similar to that used by Caravaggio in The Vocation of Saint Matthew for Saint Louis of the French. The naturalism with which he treats the figure almost borders on the grotesque, demonstrating Ribera's ability to depict all kinds of characters. It is curious to compare this image with the works of the Five Senses painted by Brueghel, with Ribera replacing Flemish elegance with a new vision that is closer to the viewer.
José de Ribera, known as the Españoleto, was a key master of the Spanish Baroque and of European art history in general. Although no documentary sources or evidence of his youth survive, it is thought that he trained with Francisco Ribalta in Valencia, after which he went to Italy, first to the north and later to Rome, where he became acquainted at first hand with the classicists and the tenebrism of the Dutch who settled there. He finally settled in Naples, where he arrived in 1616. This was the beginning of his period of maturity and splendour; Ribera enjoyed fame and a large studio, and his works were disseminated throughout Europe through engravings. He worked for viceroys and high-ranking officials of Spanish origin in Naples, and many of his works soon reached Spain. He was in fact famous in his native country, and in fact Velázquez himself visited him in 1630. Works by Ribera are now held in the Prado, the Louvre, Capodimonte, the Fine Arts Museum in Budapest, the Hermitage in St Petersburg, the Kunsthistorisches and Liechtenstein Museums in Vienna, the J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles, the Art Institute in Chicago, the Metropolitan in New York, the National Gallery and the Royal Collection in London, the Borghese Gallery in Rome and other leading art galleries in Europe, America and Asia.