How can darkness be captured? Xavier Bray, director The Wallace Collection, gives the second lecture in the Francisco Calvo Serraller series at the University.

The theater at the University of Navarra Museum hosted the second session of lecture series Calvo Serrallerlecture series , organized by the School Philosophy Letters in partnership the Friends of the Prado Museum Foundation. Xavier Bray, director The Wallace Collection (London), introduced attendees to the work of painter José de Ribera.

Also a specialist in 17th- and 18th-century Spanish painting, at the beginning of the session he projected images from one of his curated exhibitions at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. It consisted of a dimly conference room that mainly housed tenebrist works. Among them was 'Saint Sebastian Healed by the Holy Women' by José de Ribera. Faced conference room a conference room such a selection, the gallery owner posed the challenge to the audience: "How do you capture darkness?"

As Bray pointed out, Ribera's tenebrism, so difficult to display in a gallery, became one of his distinctive features. A follower of the Caravaggio school, he achieved fame for his "ability to make form appear from the shadows" and dramatize the human figure. As Bray commented, "no one paints skin like him."

This is how he introduced the artist also known as 'el Españoleto'. Bray referred to him as "the ambassador of Spanish painting" and traced his artistic journey, starting in Spain, his homeland, and ending in Italy, where he flourished as a painter. Recalling the city where he grew up, Játiva, the expert spoke of Ribera's father as his first source of inspiration. His father, who was a shoemaker, introduced the young artist to leather and hide, and it is speculated that he learned from him the sensitivity to portray it on canvas.

During the session, Bray transported attendees through Ribera's travels. At the age of fifteen, he left Játiva and traveled to Rome, where he came into contact other artists such as Francisco de Ribalta and Caravaggio, his greatest influence. The speaker the mark left by the latter painter on the Valencian artist, pointing out the parallels between their works. The Spanish artist has come to be considered Caravaggio's heir precisely because of his use of light and shadow. Ribera also managed to establish himself as an important voice in the art of the Counter-Reformation, as the expert pointed out. He developed most of his degree program Naples and achieved fame throughout Europe. He stood out not only for his technique but also for the aesthetic ideas he incorporated into his works, the result of his solid training.

But Bray admitted that this artist did not achieve the same recognition as other Spaniards such as Velázquez and Goya. Despite the impact he had on subsequent generations, as evidenced by Goya's drawing inspired by "Magdalena Ventura and her husband," Ribera was overshadowed by those who came after him.

After reviewing his history and career, the moment when the audience best understood José de Ribera was when they analyzed with Bray the 'Portrait of Saint Bartholomew', a saint who appears frequently in the Valencian artist's work. As the specialist explained at the end, this representation of the saint contained Ribera himself, "fearful of God and in darkness."

The next lecture series will be given by Eduardo Prieto González, PhD in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. In it, Prieto will offer an introduction to Baroque architecture since the Scientific Revolution, challenging the "maddening" conception with which this style is often associated.