Follower of JOSÉ DE RIBERA (Xátiva, Valencia, 1591 – Naples, 1652), circa 1900

Follower of JOSÉ DE RIBERA (Xátiva, Valencia, 1591 - Naples, 1652), circa 1900.
"Saint Andrew.
Oil on canvas.
It has a high quality frame.
Measurements: 101 x 75 cm; 128 x 100 cm (frame).
Work of the 20th century that faithfully follows the painting of José Ribera "San Andrés", which belongs to the collection of the Prado Museum. Andrew was the first apostle called by Jesus, which is why he was called by the Greeks Protokletos, "the first called". Brother of Simon Peter and, like him, a fisherman from Galilee, his name is Greek and not Hebrew, and means virile. He is mentioned twice in the Gospels: in connection with the vocations of the first two apostles, and in the episode of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. His legend comes from the Apocryphal Acts, according to which he was appointed, after the death of Jesus, to evangelise Scythia, i.e. modern-day Russia. While preaching there, an angel appeared to him and said "Go to Matthew"; he was then miraculously guided to Ethiopia, where St Matthew had been blinded and imprisoned. The prison doors opened before Andrew, and he began to pray in front of Matthew, after which the prisoner regained his sight. His mission accomplished, he went to Greece and then to Asia Minor, where he reportedly performed a series of miracles. He finally met his death at Patras in the Peloponnese, where the proconsul Aegeas had him flogged with rods for preaching disobedience to the emperor, and then ordered him to be tied with ropes to a cross in the shape of an "X", where he died on the third day. The most popular attribute of Saint Andrew is precisely this cross, although until the 15th century he is most often depicted crucified on a normal cross. Sometimes a net full of fish is used as a second attribute, since he was adopted as the patron saint of freshwater fishermen, fishmongers and rope-makers who provided the fishermen with rope for their nets. In time he also became the patron saint of Greece and Russia.
A key painter belonging to the José de Ribera generation, he is one of the great masters of the Golden Age, trained in Italy as a self-taught painter. He first came into contact with naturalism when he arrived in Rome in 1615, where he came into contact with the Nordic Caravaggists, from whom he adopted the smooth, hurried technique, ugliness and rigorous drawing, characteristics that shaped his style during his Roman period. However, in 1616 he moved to Naples and settled there permanently. In Naples Ribera became the leader of the group of Neapolitan naturalists and an important circle of painters grew up around him. Despite his stay in Italy, Ribera sent numerous works to Spain, and his language would be key to the formation of the Baroque in our country. His work would bring tenebrism and, later, the full Baroque, long before the latter arrived directly in Spain, thus influencing the new generations of painters.