Trinitas terrestris con santi e l'Eterno Padre

Ribera was a Spaniard who spent his career in Naples, which in his day was ruled from Spain, and locals called him Lo Spagnoletto, the little Spaniard. Around 1630 he painted this enormous altarpiece, nearly four meters tall, for a convent church in the city. Its title points to a pairing. Below is the earthly family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and above them God the Father, so that the household on earth mirrors heaven. Ranged around are saints who founded the great monastic orders. Ribera works in the heavy shadow and the unidealized, weathered faces he took from Caravaggio's example, saints with the skin of real old men. It was made for the church of the Santissima Trinita delle Monache and now hangs in the Capodimonte museum in Naples.