Ribera : Ténèbres et lumière

Exhibition at the Petit Palais, Paris, 5 November 2024 - 23 February 2025

For Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652), 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 more than a hundred paintings, drawings and prints from all over the world, this exhibition catalogue 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.