The Poet

Jusepe de Riberas The Poet from 1620-30 is an etching that depicts a figure of a poet with the unflinching physical realism and psychological intensity that distinguish Riberas best work in both painting and print. Ribera, the Spanish-born painter who spent his entire career in Naples and became the leading artist of the Neapolitan Baroque, used printmaking as a means of disseminating his compositions to a wider audience and of exploring subjects that allowed him to exercise his talent for depicting the human body in extremis. The poet, with his gaunt face, straggling beard, and intense gaze, is a figure of intellectual suffering rather than physical martyrdom, a man whose creative gift is also a burden that marks his face and body with the signs of contemplation and privation. The etching medium, with its capacity for fine lines and tonal gradations, allows Ribera to model the poets weathered features with the same sculptural three-dimensionality that characterizes his oil paintings, while the monochrome format emphasizes the tonal values that give the figure its grave authority. The years 1620-30 bracket the period of Riberas most productive engagement with printmaking, when he was producing etchings that were collected throughout Europe and that established his reputation as one of the finest printmakers of the 17th century alongside Rembrandt and Callot.

Riberas etchings are among the most accomplished prints of the 17th century, and their influence on the development of naturalistic figure study in European art is comparable to that of Rembrandts etchings. The Poet demonstrates that Ribera brought the same unflinching realism and psychological intensity to the medium of print that he brought to his paintings.

An etching by Ribera from 1620-30 depicting a poet with gaunt features and intense gaze, demonstrating the same unflinching physical realism and psychological intensity that distinguish his paintings and establishing his reputation as one of the finest printmakers of the 17th century.