"The Bearded Woman"the most singular work of José de Riberais part of the wide-ranging retrospective that, under the title "Ténébres et Lumière".the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Paris dedicated to this artist. The exhibition can be visited at the Petit Palais from 5 November 2024 to 24 February 2025.
The Barbuda of Abruzzo, this painting, which belongs to the collection of the Casa Ducal de Medinaceli Foundationwas commissioned to Ribera by the III Duke of Alcalá and is one of the most curious works in European painting of its time. Documentary or testimonial in nature, as the extensive inscription makes explicit, Ribera's mastery succeeded in transforming it into a scene of high psychological content. Heir to the tenebrism of Caravaggio, Ribera understands that every pictorial scene comes from a reality that he translates into his own language.
His work focuses on the psychological truth of the human being rather than on the simple identification of the character. The exhibition brings together more than a hundred paintings, drawings and prints from all over the world. It also traces for the first time José de Ribera's career from his intense years in Rome to his ambitious period in Naples.
