Jusepe de Ribera’s Otherness: Identity and Representation in Early Modern Iberian Art

This talk takes a closer look at Ribera’s otherness as an artist. It first considers Ribera’s marginalized status in Spain, possibly because of his Morisco (converted Muslim) or Converso (converted Jewish) ancestry. The artist was painfully cognizant of his low status and commented on Spain’s ill-treatment of him “as a cruel stepmother to her children,” as famously recorded by the art theorist and painter Jusepe Martínez. While his ancestry remains speculative, specific biographical details have suggested that he might have been of Morisco ancestry. Second, Ribera’s subject position as an “other” informed his interpretation of innovative and unconventional content. In specific, this presentation will consider Ribera’s representations of Turkish men, such as his drawing of The Turkish Dignitary and other Figures (1630s, Madrid, Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando) and A Potentate Accompanied by His Halberd Bearer, c. 1625-1630, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum). These proto-orientalist images have often been deemed fanciful or exotic, but a closer look at them reveals complex European and non-European identity constructs, respectively. Moreover, as an artist who might have left Spain due to social prejudices yet who promoted himself as a Spanish artist working in the Iberian dominion of Naples under the protection of its viceroys, Ribera paradoxically occupies a third or “in-between” space. Arguably, this intersectionality merits further introspection.