Anbetung der Hirten

Ribera painted this Nativity late in his life, around 1650, in Naples, where he had lived for more than 30 years under Spanish rule. A shepherd kneels close to the manger, his face and rough hands lit hard against the dark in the plain-spoken naturalism Ribera had taken from Caravaggio. There is a puzzle attached to it. An almost identical Adoration by Ribera hangs in Paris, one canvas upright and one wide, and because neither is firmly dated, no one can say for certain which came first or whether one is a copy of the other. This one has stayed in the same church near Naples, in the town of Castellammare di Stabia, on the bay south of the city.