O escultor cego

Ribera signed and dated this in 1632, when he was the leading painter in Naples, then ruled by the Spanish crown and still working in the long shadow of Caravaggio's harsh light. A poorly dressed blind man leans over a table and runs his hands across a marble head, reading its features by touch alone. For a long time he was called the blind sculptor of Gambassi, a real man who was said to carve by feel, but that identification has fallen away. The likelier idea is that this is Touch itself, one of a set showing the five senses. Ribera lets the light rake across the man's forehead and closed eyes, so that a face which cannot see the light still seems to register it.