The poet

Jusepe Ribera
Italy
c.1591 – 1652

The poet
c 1620-21
etching on paper
Place made
Naples, Italy
Medium
etching on paper
Dimensions
16.1 x 12.4 cm (plate & sheet)
Credit line
David Murray Bequest Fund 1949
Accession number
4910G183
Signature and date
Not signed. Not dated.
Catalogue raisonne
B.XX.82.10; Brown (1973) 3
Media category
Print
Collection area
European prints

  • WALL LABEL: A Beautiful Line: Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi, 2012

     

    Jusepe Ribera was born in Spain and spent his entire artistic career in Italy, settling in Naples in 1616. His etchings, although few in number, were popular and influential in his day. This is one of Ribera’s most enigmatic prints. It depicts a poet, who is identifiable by his wreath of laurel leaves. Ribera may have intended to use the print as a title page for a series of prints. The stone block would serve as an ideal space on which to inscribe the title of a book. However, Ribera may have realised the power of his image as it was, and chose to treat the print as an independent work of art.

     

    Maria Zagala, Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs

  • Master Prints and Drawings from the Collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 25 February 1978 – 27 March 1978

  • A beautiful line. Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 20 August 2010 – 31 October 2010
  • [Book] Brown, Jonathan. Jusepe de Ribera: Prints and Drawings.
  • [Book] Master Prints and Drawings from the Collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia.
  • [Book] Zagala, Maria. A Beautiful Line : Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi.
  • [Book] Five Centuries of Melancholia.
  • [Book] White, Robert. Keat's Anatomy of Melancholy.