Le Martyre de saint Philippe

For nearly three hundred years everyone who stood in front of this painting thought they were looking at Saint Bartholomew, who was famously flayed alive. Ribera had in fact painted Bartholomew several times, so the assumption made sense. Then in 1953 a historian noticed something missing. Bartholomew's usual attribute, the flaying knife, is nowhere in the picture. The subject is Saint Philip, being hauled up to be crucified. Ribera catches the ugly, ordinary labour of it. Ropes strain, ladders lean, men heave the saint's arms up toward the crossbeam while the sky behind is left almost empty. Ribera was a Spaniard working in Naples, then ruled by Spain, and this was probably a gift meant for King Philip IV, whose patron saint was this same Philip. The canvas survived a fire in the royal palace in Madrid in 1734, and only some time after 1818 did it finally come to the Prado.