Issione

Ribera signed and dated this in 1632, working in Naples, then ruled by Spain, where he had become the most sought-after painter for the Spanish court and its viceroys. It belongs to a set of four he made of the great sinners of Greek myth, the men condemned to eternal torture: Ixion here, bound to a wheel that turns forever for having tried to seduce Hera, the wife of Zeus. Two of the four are now lost, and this one and its Tityus survive in the Prado. Ribera gives you the punishment up close and physical, the aging body wrenched against the ropes. The horned, pointed-eared creature hauling him onto the wheel is the painter's own addition, since in the myth the tortures of the underworld were carried out by goddesses, making this leering male demon an invention of Ribera's.