Title

Inmaculate Conception

Ribera, José de (Játiva, 1591 - Nápoles, 1652)

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Dimensions

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Inscriptions / Marks

The signature appears at the bottom right: Jusepe de Rivera español.

Object history

The VI Count of Monterrey, Manuel de Fonseca y Zúñiga, sponsored the construction of the convent of the Augustinian Recollect nuns in Salamanca in the 1630s (García Boiza, 1945; Madruga Real, 1982). In the decoration of the temple very outstanding artists intervened such as Guido Reni or Cosimo Fanzago, who made the sculptures of St. Peter and St. Paul, which are currently preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and in a private collection in New York, respectively. Manuel de Fonseca y Zúñiga spent a long period in Italy, first in Rome and then in Naples. It was at that time that he commissioned José de Ribera to make a large Immaculate Conception for the altarpiece of the high altar (Finaldi, Cenalmor and Payne, 2016). El Españoleto made four preparatory drawings in pen ink, which leads one to believe that he devised his compositions in advance. The painting was completed around 1635 and sent to Salamanca shortly thereafter.

However, this was not the only Inmaculada that Ribera made for the convent of the Augustinian Recollect nuns. In the inventory of the relics and ornaments that the VI Count of Monterrey gave to the convent, a painting is described as follows: "una Nª Sª de la Concepción en tela quadro grande de Jusepe de Ribera, esta en ser" (Urrea, 2019). Said work has been identified with the Inmaculada housed in the Columbia Museum of Art (South Carolina, United States). Therefore, the painting came from Salamanca (Felton and Jordan, 1982).

Subsequently, this work was part of the collection of the 1st Marquis of Salamanca, José María de Salamanca y Mayol, a very prominent businessman during the reign of Isabel II. The crisis of 1866 affected his business severely, forcing him to get rid of part of his assets in order to cover his debts. Just a year later, 237 paintings from his collection were auctioned in Paris, including this Immaculate Conception (1867). The work is cited in the auction catalog (no. 26) as follows:

"La Vierge, les mains jointes et les yeux tournés vers le ciel, dans l'attitude d'une religieuse attente, est debout, les pieds posés sur le croissant symbolique que supportent des chérubins; vêtue d'une long robe blanche, elle est enveloppée en partie des plis flottants d' une draperie bleue; au-dessus d'elle est le Saint-Esprit, que de nombreux chérubins entourent. Signed on the right; Jüsepe de Ribera, espagnol, F. 1637".

It was acquired by Baron Thyssen, who decided to transfer it to his private collection in Lugano (Switzerland). In 1957 it was put up for sale again, this time by the Kress Foundation (n.º K 2160). Finally, in 1962 the Columbia Museum of Art acquired it, and it is still there today (Pérez Sánchez and Spinosa, 2003).

Description

This Immaculate Conception has been related to the canvas of the same subject located in the collection of the family of Count Harrach, in the Rohra Castle, in Vienna (Pérez Sánchez and Spinosa, 2003; Martínez, 2008). Similarly, the present painting can also be related to the Inmaculada that belonged to the collection of Fernando VII (Brown, 1984) and is currently in the Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid).

Before carrying out this composition Ribera had made four preparatory drawings and another large Immaculate Conception (Finaldi, Cenalmor and Payne, 2016). In the Instituto Centrale per la Grafica (Rome) there are several drawings that belonged to Prince Livio Odescalchi where Ribera made studies of angels and cherubs, which could have served as a model for those found in the lower part of the composition. It is possible that together with Ribera his workshop was involved in the making of the work (Pérez Sánchez and Spinosa, 1978; Spinosa, 2008).

Locations

• ca. 1637 - XIX^th c.

  church

  Church of the Convent of the Augustinian Nuns, Salamanca, Salamanca (Spain)

• ca. 1867

  private collection

  José de Salamanca y Mayol, Madrid (Spain) *

• Early XX^th c. - Mid XX^th c.

  private collection

  Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Lugano (Switzerland) *

• ca. 1957 - ca. 1962

  private collection

  Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York (United States) *

• 1962 - present

  museum

  Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia (United States)