St Jerome

This work entered the National Gallery in 1952 as a work of the school of Ribera, an attribution that was accepted until 1997. Recently the artist was identified as Lionello Spada, on the basis of a citation in the inventory of the property ceded by Maffeo Barberini to his brother Carlo in 1623, immediately before the former’s assumption of the papacy.

Stylistically, the Barberini Saint Jerome differs significantly from the rest of the accepted production of Spada. A close connection is evident to the works of Ribera, to whom this painting was in fact once attributed. This would suggest that Spada encountered the Spanish artist in Rome; however Ribera’s documented presence in the papal city from only 1613 onward does not match the proposed chronology of Spada’s voyage there in 1608-09. This discrepancy opens new questions about the chronology of this Bolognese painter and the reconstruction of his career.