Art Gallery of New South Wales Acquires a Ribera
January 5 2022
Picture: The Art Gallery of New South Wales
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has been in touch with news that The Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, has acquired Jusepe de Ribera's Aesop. It seems that this is the same Aesop that was sold at auction in Paris during 2000.*
According to the gallery's press release:
Painted in Naples, Aesop c1625–31 is a portrayal of Aesop, the legendary ancient Greek storyteller, and one of Ribera’s very first representations of so-called ‘beggar philosophers’.
Spanish by birth, Ribera (1591–1652) moved to Rome at an early age and eventually made his home in Naples where he adopted Caravaggio’s practice of working directly from posed models, imparting them with a vibrant presence that showed all their imperfections with life-like realism.
Purchased in 2021, the Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation funded the acquisition from its endowment and funds raised at a 2019 Foundation event.
The work is on display in the Art Gallery’s revitalised Grand Courts, which are considered the finest Victorian-era galleries in Australia.
* - A reader has kindly been in touch to let me know that the picture is not the same as the one with Colnaghi's in 2018, as I had previously suggested.
