Ribera: Shadows and Light

As the culmination of a series of exhibitions about the art of the early 17th century, this exhibition is devoted to Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652), one of the greatest painters of the 17th century. It is the first French retrospective ever devoted to the artist, heir to Caravaggiobut even ‘darker and more ferocious’ than the great Italian master according to his contemporaries. Of Spanish origin, Ribera spent his entire career in Italy, first in Rome and then in Naples.

For Ribera, every painting - be it of a beggar, a philosopher or a Pietà - stems from reality, which he transposes into his own language. The gestures are theatrical, the colours black or flamboyant, the realism crude and the chiaroscuro dramatic. With the same acuity, he translates the dignity of everyday life as well as shocking scenes of torture. This extreme tenebrism earned him an immense reputation in the 19th century, from Baudelaire to Manet.

With over a hundred paintings, drawings and prints from all over the world, the exhibition retraces Ribera's entire career for the first time: the intense Roman years, which have only recently been rediscovered, and the ambitious Neapolitan period, which led to his meteoric rise to fame. One thing is clear: Ribera stands out as one of the earliest and boldest interpreters of the Caravaggesque revolution, and beyond that as one of the leading artists of the Baroque age.