Jusepe de Ribera

Spanish painter and printmaker. Born near Valencia, Ribera left Spain for Italy in 1612-1613, and traveled to Parma, Padua and Rome, where he became acquainted with the works of Raphael, Correggio, and Titian. He became a follower of Caravaggio, and became one of the Tenebrosi, or shadow-painters, owing to the sharp contrasts of light and shade marking their style. The impressions of his work are both gloomy and startling and he delighted in subjects of horror. In the early 1630s his style changed away from strong contrasts of dark and light to a more diffused and golden lighting.