Philosopher Crates

This canvas is one work from a noteworthy series by Ribera, painted primarily in the 1630s, representing the famous philosophers of antiquity. Each image in the series is minutely worked to reveal the philosophy and character of its subject, an approach that would have appealed to the humanists of the day. However, Ribera distanced himself from the traditional iconographic framework for such images, and in spite of the fact that these works were meant to represent wise men, he painted from actual models and rejected all idealization as he created powerful depictions of their actual figures. If the inscription on the lower right of this painting is reliable, this canvas depicts the Theban philosopher Crates. This philospher, a Cynic active around 320 B. C., is known to have been the student of Diogenes and the teacher of Zeno, the founder of Stoicism. Crates abandoned his property to become a mendicant and the author of didactic parodies, tragedies and dramas. Crates is known to have been a kind, wise and fascinating character with an ugly face. However, the man shown here is not particularly ugly in Ribera's philosopher series. This painting is known to have been in the collection of the Prince of Lichtenstein in the mid 18th century, and judging from historical documents, it is surmised to have been one of a series of six works painted for the Prince in 1636-37. Today this series is divided between museums in the west and the NMWA. All six works were gathered for display in 1992 when the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, held an exhibition on Ribera. That opportunity to view the six works together revealed that there are slight differences in the styles of the six works, and thus it is clear that some of the paintings involved work by Ribera's studio. Of the six works, the NMWA's image of Crates was particularly noteworthy for its powerful, true touch. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.44)