Jusepe de Ribera

Jusepe de Ribera was born in Xàtiva near Valencia, went to Italy young and settled in Spanish-ruled Naples, where Italians called him Lo Spagnoletto, "the little Spaniard". Following Caravaggio, he painted with hard tenebrist light and unsparing realism: flayed and crucified martyrs, and wrinkled beggars posed as ancient philosophers. His later works grew lighter and richer in colour. Working for the Spanish viceroys, he became the dominant painter in Naples.