RIBERA, JOSE. 



RICARDO, DAVID. 



by Archbishop Don Juan de Ribera for the grand altar of tho College 

 of Corpus Christi, at Valencia. He painted the portrait of a 

 venerable friar of the place, Pedro Munoz, as St. Andrew ; and as 

 Judas, a shoemaker of the name of Pradas, whose vicinity was a 

 nuisance to him. He died in 1628, and was buried in the church of 

 San Juan del Mercado, in Valencia. 



Ribalta's design was correct and vigorous ; he was a good anatomist ; 

 and his compositions are often grand. In colouring also he was 

 generally good, much resembling Sebastiano and Titian, though occa- 

 sionally dry; but the works of some of his principal scholars, as 

 Castaiied and Bausa, are sometimes attributed to him. Hip works are 

 or were very numerous in Valencia, and there are several at Castellon 

 de la Plana, and Madrid ; and some at San Ildefonso, Toledo, Zara- 

 goza, Audilla, Algemesi, Torfente, Portaceli, Morella, and Carcaxente. 



The ' Entombment ' by Ribalta, in the cathedral of Valencia, is an 

 excellent wflrk, and there are also many admirable pictures by him in 

 private collections in Valencia, as those of the Conde de Parceut, and 

 the Marques del Rafol. The Corpus Christi College is, according to 

 Mr. Ford, a complete museum of Ribaltas. It was founded by Eibal- 

 ta's patron, the Archbishop Juan de Ribera, commonly called ' El 

 Santo liibera.' He was canonised in 1797. Ribalta is to be seen 

 to greatest advantage in the church of this college, which contains 

 some of his greatest works, as ' San Vicente de Ferrer visited on his 

 sick Bed by our Saviour and Saints ;' the ' Last Supper,' already men- 

 tioned ; and a ' Holy Family.' In other parts of the same building 

 are ' Christ in the Garden of Olives ; ' ' Christ at the Column,' and a 

 saint or ' Beata ' in a brown habit. There are also some works by 

 Ribalta in the Museo (the former ' Carmen ') of Valencia. The pictures 

 of the church of the small hamlet of Andilla are also among the best 

 works of Ribalta. At Segorbe, in the church of San Martin de las 

 Moiijas, is also a noble picture by Ribalta of Christ descending into 

 Hades. In the church of his native place Castellon de la Plana there 

 is still a ' Purgatory ' by him ; other fine works that were in this place 

 have been allowed to perish. The picture of ' Christ bearing his 

 Cross' in Magdalen College, Oxford, of which there is a print by 

 Sherwin, and which is ascribed to Guido, Lodovico Caracci, and to 

 Moralez el Divino, is, according to Mr. Ford, certainly a picture by 

 Ribalta. It is the chapel altar-piece, and was presented to the college 

 by William Freeman, of Hamels, in Hertfordshire ; it was originally 

 brought from Spain by the last Duke of Ormond from Vigo in 1702. 



JUAN DE RIBALTA, an able painter, and of great promise, was the 

 son and pupil of Francisco, but he died in the same year as his father, 

 aged only 31 ; he was born in 1597. . Ribera also, or Spagnoletto, is 

 said to have been the pupil of Ribalta. 



RIBE'RA, JOSfi, an eminent Spanish painter, better known by the 

 surname of SPAGNOLETTO (the little Spaniard), which the Italians gave 

 him, was born on the 8th of January 1588, at San Felipe de Xativa, 

 a large town in Spain, about teu miles from Valencia. Having from 

 his early youth shown a great inclination for painting, his parents, 

 though in indigent circumstances, did everything in their power to 

 promote his taste for that art. He was placed as a student under 

 Francisco Ribalta [RIBALTA, FRANCISCO], but before he was sixteen 

 he left his master, and determined to visit Italy. After spending 

 some time at Rome, where he almost lived upon charity, he arrived at 

 Naples in 1606. Here he met with Michel Angelo Caravaggio, whose 

 striking and vigorous style made such an impression upon him that he 

 never rested until he became his pupil. Under this master Ribera 

 made such progress, and his productions were so much admired, that 

 he was considered an accomplished master at the age of twenty. 

 From Naples, Ribera went to Parma, where the works of Correggio 

 were then the object of public admiration, and afterwards he visited 

 Rome. Whilst there he attempted to improve his style by imitating the 

 works of Raffaelle, but without much success. This circumstance, as 

 well as the great number of excellent artists practising in that city, 

 induced him to return to Naples, where his prospects of employment 

 were greater, that country being then under the dominion of his 

 countrymen the Spaniards. After a few months' residence at Naples, 

 the Count of Monterrey, the Spanish viceroy, took him under his pro- 

 tection, and employed him in executing considerable works for the 

 King of Spain. In 1630 he was elected a member of the Academy of 

 St. Luke at Rome, and he was made a knight of the order of Christ 

 by the pope in 1644. Ribera died at Naples in 1656. Like his 

 master Caravaggio, his style was characterised by broad lights and 

 shades. His genius naturally inclined him to gloomy or horrible 

 subjects, which he selected both from sacred and profane history. He 

 delighted in designing old men emaciated by mortification, such as 

 hermits and saints, and seems to have at all times rejoiced in the dis- 

 play of bone, veins, and tendons. In tragic compositions, martyrdoms, 

 executions, and torments, he was eminently successful ; and he treated 

 these appalling subjects with a correctness of design and a fidelity 

 which might serve as a study for the anatomist. Thus the spasms of 

 Ixion, S. Bartholomew under the butcher's knife, the torments of 

 Sisyphus, Tantalus, and Prometheus, Laocoon and his sons attacked 

 by serpents, were his favourite subjects. His principal pictures are in 

 the Royal Museum at Madrid, in the Escurial, and at Naples, in which 

 last place he painted the ' Martyrdom of S. Januarius,' for the royal 

 chapel ; ' S. Jerome and S. Bruno,' for the church of the Trinity ; 

 and the ' Taking Down from the Cross,' for the Carthusians. Ribera 



sometimes indulged himself in engraving, and he also made six-and- 

 twenty etchings, which were executed in a bold and free style, and 

 with great correctness of design. 



RICARDO, DAVID, was born in London, on the 19th of April, 

 1772. His father, a native of Holland, had then been for several years 

 a member of the Stock Exchange in London ; and designing his third 

 son, David, for the same occupation, gave him a good but plain com- 

 mercial education. For this purpose he was sent when eleven years of 

 age, to a school in Holland, where he remained for about two years. 

 Soon after his return to England he was taken into his father's office 

 as a clerk, and when of age was associated with him in business. la 

 1793 he formed a matrimonial alliance displeasing to his father, by 

 reason of his religious scruples, the elder Mr. Ricardo having been 

 born of Jewish parents, and continuing to profess their faith until his 

 death. This breach between the father and son, which was afterwards 

 entirely healed, necessarily caused their separation as regarded busi- 

 ness, and threw the subject of this notice altogether upon his own 

 efforts, seconded however, in a manner highly honourable to all 

 parties, by many of the leading members of the Stock Exchange. 

 Mr. Ricardo continued to be a member of the Stock Exchange until 

 1818, and was eminently successful, taking for many years a leading 

 part in its business, and realising a princely fortune by conduct which 

 gained for him universal respect. 



During the years in which Mr. Ricardo was most actively engaged 

 in business, he continued to devote much time to study and to 

 scientific pursuits. He was one of the original promoters of the 

 Geological Society of London, and for some years a member of its 

 council. He also acquired a considerable knowledge of chemistry, as 

 well as an acquaintance with mathematics. Of late years the powers 

 of his mind were almost wholly devoted to the elucidation of ques- 

 tions connected with political economy, a study which was at once 

 best suited to the peculiar quality of his mind and most in uuiaoii 

 with his daily pursuits in business, and by his attainments in which 

 he was enabled to take his place among the most original thinkers of 

 his day. 



In the beginning of 1819 Mr. Ricardo was returned to parliament 

 by the Irish borough of Portarlington, which place he continued to 

 represent until his death. 



The reputation which Mr. Ricardo had previously acquired by his 

 writings ensured to him the attention of the house on all occasions 

 when he spoke, and not unfrequently induced the members present to 

 call upon him for his opinion when the subject-matter of the debate 

 was such as might receive light from his extensive knowledge. 

 Although he confined himself in his parliamentary speeches almost 

 entirely to subjects of finance, and such as fell strictly within the line 

 of economical science, his reported speeches are numerous and of con- 

 siderable value. During each of the five sessions in which he sat in 

 parliament his name constantly appears as a speaker, and in the latest 

 two years of the series (1822 and 1823) his addresses were very frequent. 

 Those persons who had most narrowly watched the progress of his 

 public career felt justified in predicting for him a future of the highest 

 usefulness ; and had his life been spared, it is reasonable to think that 

 their predictions would have been fulfilled. At the close of the session 

 of 1823 he retired to his estate of Gatcomb Park in Gloucestershire, 

 and, after a very few days' illness, died on the llth of September, of 

 an inflammation of the brain, in the fifty-second year of his age. 



Mr. Ricardo first appeared as an author during the discussion that 

 led to and accompanied the famous Bullion Committee hi 1810. His 

 pamphlet, which was entitled ' The High Price of Bullion a Proof of 

 the Depreciation of Bank Notes,' speedily passed through four editions, 

 and occasioned the publication of several replies. His next publication 

 was entitled 'A Reply to Mr. Bosanquet's Practical Observations on 

 the Report of the Bullion Committee ;' and however much opinions 

 may at that time have been divided upon the subject, it has long since 

 been generally acknowledged that the victory rested with Mr. Ricardo. 

 Although the peculiar interest which attended those discussions has 

 long since passed away, Mr. Ricardo's pamphlet will be read with 

 pleasure by all who delight in marking the ease with which a man of 

 superior talent can trace and exhibit the constant and active operation 

 of general principles through all the intricacies of practical detail. 



In 1815 Mr. Ricardo published ' An Essay on the Influence of a 

 Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock,' in which he combated the 

 justice of restrictions on the importation of corn ;, but the essay is 

 chiefly remarkable for the doctrine which it propounds concerning 

 rent. The following year produced ' Proposals for an Economical and 

 Secure Currency, with Observations on the Profits of the Bank of 

 England.' Mr. Ricardo's great work, that upon which his lasting fame 

 as an economist must rest, ' On the Principles of Political Economy 

 and Taxation,' was published in 1817, and was at once pronounced 

 the most valuable contribution made to economical science since the 

 days of Adam Smith. In 1822 Mr. Ricardo again appeared as the 

 author of a tract entitled ' On Protection to Agriculture,' in which he 

 exposed certain fallacies and prejudices of the landed proprietors. 

 The effects of legislative protection afforded to products of the soil 

 upon wages, profits, public revenues, and non-agricultural branches of 

 the national industry, are all discussed within the limits of eighty -seven 

 pages, with a clearness and precision that may be said to exhaust the 

 matter, and which prove the author to have been perfect master of 



