St. Albert 1626

This drawing of Saint Albert is by Jusepe de Ribera, and was made sometime in the first half of the 17th century. Ribera was a leading painter of the Spanish Baroque, an era marked by religious and political conflict across Europe. Ribera spent most of his career in Italy where he absorbed the influence of Caravaggio and the Neapolitan school. He was known for his naturalistic style, and especially his interest in capturing human suffering. In ‘Saint Albert,’ Ribera depicts the saint cruelly hung upside down. The image invites us to meditate on themes of martyrdom and religious conviction. What strikes me is the raw emotion conveyed through Ribera's use of line. You can almost feel Saint Albert’s physical agony. Ribera avoids idealizing the saint. Instead, he presents a vulnerable figure, reflecting perhaps a wider acknowledgement of human suffering, during an era of war, plague and religious persecution.