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Dimensions: 25 1/2 by 19 1/2 in.; 65 by 49.4 cm.
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Provenance: PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
Imperiali di Francavilla family, Naples and later Rome;
Thence by family descent to Don Andrea Imperiali, Rome;
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, July 5, 1995, lot 73.
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Exhibited: Naples, Castel Sant'Elmo, Ribera 1591-1652, February 27 - May 17, 1992, no. 1.7a.
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Literature: N. Spinosa, in Ribera 1591-1652, exhibition catalogue, Naples, Castel Sant'Elmo, February 27 - May 17, 1992, p. 124, cat. no. 1.7a., reproduced in color p. 125;
N. Spinosa, in Jusepe de Ribera 1591-1652, exhibition catalogue, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 18 - November 29, 1992, p. 66, under cat. no. 7, and p. 259;
N. Spinosa, Ribera, Naples 2003, pp. 38, 255, cat. no. A23, reproduced in color p. 32.
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Notes: This painting, together with its pendant representing Saint Jude Thaddeus (sold, London, Sotheby's, July 5, 1995, lot 72), has been dated by Spinosa to the end of Ribera's Roman sojourn or to immediately after his arrival in Naples in the middle of 1616 (see Literature, 1992). Both pictures probably once formed part of a larger series of apostles to which a Saint Paul (private collection, Naples) and Saint Peter (University Art Museum, Bloomington, Indiana) are also thought to have once belonged (for the latter see Spinosa under Literature, 2003, p. 253, cat. no. A16, reproduced). The four paintings are of similar dimensions (approx. 65 by 50 cm.) and each apostle is shown bust-length, sharply lit from the left, clutching his attribute (here Philip holds the cross which is the symbol of his martyrdom). This was a format Ribera re-adopted for the three paintings of apostles in the Quadreria dei Gerolamini, Naples, also datable to circa 1616 (op. cit., pp. 254-5, cat. nos. A19-21, reproduced) and again much later, for the more complete series of apostles he executed in the early 1630s, today in the Museo del Prado, Madrid (see A. Pérez Sánchez, Ribera 1591-1652, exhibition catalogue, Madrid, Museo del Prado, June 2 - August 16, 1992, pp. 248-62, cat. nos. 42-55, all reproduced).
The apostle Philip is shown here bust-length, looking upwards and outwards of the confines of the picture space. The figure is convincingly life-like and three-dimensional: the hand, seen gripping the cross tightly, is conceived of as a solid form and the head, painted with confident brushstrokes, is extremely naturalistic. The individual characterisation of the figure is further underlined through a comparison with the bearded model used for the figure of Saint Jude Thaddeus, younger in age and of finer features. The thickly-applied paint, in particular the use of impasto for the highlights on his forehead, is a characteristic of Ribera's style in these years and may be compared to that in other works from this period. A similar handling is visible in his Portrait of a man formerly in the Giustiniani collection in Rome (today in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin) or of Saint Augustine (Galleria Regionale della Sicilia, Palermo), where Ribera evidently used the same model for both paintings (see Spinosa, op. cit., 2003, cat. nos. A8 and A9, both reproduced in colour p. 24). The heavy folds of Philip's cloak so convincingly draped across his chest are extremely similar in handling to those of St. Peter in his painting of Saints Peter and Paul, also datable to circa 1616, in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg (ibid., cat. no. A25, reproduced in colour p. 33).
It is not known how this painting, and its companion of Saint Jude Thaddeus, came to be in the possession of the Imperiali di Francavilla family. The Francavilla branch of the Imperiali family flourished in Naples under the Bourbons. Created Marchesi di Oyra and Signori di Francavilla e Castelnuovo in 1575, they became Principi di Francavilla in 1639, followed by a string of titles throughout the 17th Century, culminating in the Grandi d'Espagna, first class, in 1705.
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