St Jerome

1610 · Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome

religious

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.

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About the Artist

Lionello Spada

1576 – 1622

Italian painter, born in Bologna in 1576, Lionello Spada was trained as a quadraturist in the workshop of Cesare Baglione. He was the companion, and, according to contemporaries, the assistant of Caravaggio, and he underwent his influence. He continued his development alongside of Dentone and Brizio, while at the same time gravitating increasingly towards the Carracci Academy. There he fell under the influence of Lodovico Carracci, whose stylistic tendencies remained a constant in all of Spada's subsequent production.

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