FRANCISCO RIBALTA Solsona, Lerida (1565) / Valencia (1628)

Oil on canvas.
 
Provenance:
- Collection of Don Fernando de Borja y Aragon, Count of Mayalde, Simari and Prince of Esquilache.
– Madrid, private collection. Bibliography: - Historical Archive of Madrid Protocols, no. 9812, late 358-441;
- Marco Garcia, V., Baroque painting in Valencia, CEEH, Madrid, 2021. Francisco Ribalta no. cat. 109.
 
The Borja family, Borgia in Italian, originally from Aragon and established in the kingdom of Valencia and later in Italy, was one of the most influential during the Renaissance and Baroque. Among its members are Popes Calixtus III and Alexander VII, Saint Francis of Borgia himself and numerous prominent men belonging to the high nobility who carried out an important work of patronage over the centuries. One of them was Fernando de Borja y Aragon (Lisbon, c. 1583 – Madrid, 1665), Count of Mayalde, Simari and Prince of Esquilache who held different positions of power throughout his life under the reigns of Philip III and Philip. IV.
The first entrusted him with missions as ambassador in Savoy, Florence and Rome.
The second incorporated him as Gentleman of his Royal Chamber and named him Viceroy of Aragon.
 
Thanks to his high position, his culture and the fact that he knew Italian artistic environments directly, Fernando de Borja managed to amass an important collection of paintings that, after his death, was valued by Juan Antonio Escalante in 1666. The inventory drawn up by him shows a collection with a clear preference for the great Italian masters, especially the Venetians, but among these paintings was a single work done by a Spanish painter, the great Francisco Ribalta, which was valued at the high sum of one hundred and ten reales and which represented “ “A Virgin with the Child giving him some cherries.”
This important work mentioned in the aforementioned inventory is the one shown here and was possibly acquired by Fernando de Borja y Aragon for his collection during the years in which he held the position of Viceroy of Valencia, between 1635 and 1640. Francisco Ribalta He had died in 1628, so we assume that it must not have been a direct commission from the painter, but the fame he had achieved during his life was still valid in those years and his paintings continued to be requested by the great collectors of the time. Francisco Ribalta captured on this canvas an adorable vision of the Holy Family in which the Virgin, with a complacent gesture and tender gaze, offers some cherries to the Child Jesus while he rests on an embroidered pillow and tries to reach the sweet offering held by his mother and which gives the name to the work. In the background, among typically Ribaltesque shadows, Saint Juanito appears carrying in his hands the cross and a staff from which several fruits hang. Following his characteristic naturalism, Ribalta presents Maria in a far from idealized way, wearing the feminine attire of the popular classes of the time, with her hair practically loose and part of the buttons of the dress unbuttoned.
However, it gives the main figures of the composition a monumental tone that is accompanied by a detailed and rigorous anatomical study; all of this captured with a color palette of clear Venetian descent, very much to the taste of its owner, in which greenish and bluish tones predominate combined with ochres, reds, mauves and intense whites. The technical expertise achieved by Ribalta in this mature work, its origin and its endearing and empathetic theme make it a key piece in his production.
 
 Measurements: 90 x 123.5 cm.
Medidas: 90 x 123,5 cm.