Beschreibung:

School of Jusepe de Ribera known as Lo Spagnoletto (Xàtiva 1591 - Naples 1652) Archimedes or Philosopher with compass (Heraclitus?) Oil on canvas 75 x 80 cm The artwork finds specific correspondence with the canvas entitled Philosopher of Ribera, signed and dated 1631, kept in Tucson at the University of Arizona Art Museum (https://artmuseum.arizona.edu/samuel-h-kress-collection/attachment / jusepe-de-ribera #! prettyPhoto). There is another version, attributed to the circle, in an Italian private collection https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistorcOrArtisticProperty/1600334619. The artwork, not perfectly identified in the subject, refers to the Democritus of Ribera, kept at the Prado in Madrid. This artwork probably coincides with that created by Spagnoletto for the viceroy of Naples, already titled first as Philosopher with compass and then Archimedes, in the inventories of Fernando Afán de Ribera y Enríquez, Duke of Alcalá. Or, as Nicola Spinosa suggests in his monograph dedicated to Ribera on p. 295 (file A87), the figure could be identified with the philosopher Heraclitus due to his seriousness.