NARRATOR:
The painter and printmaker Jusepe de Ribera created this canvas around 1615. Among his earliest known works, it was one of a famous series depicting the five senses: hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch.
In The Sense of Touch, a blind man explores the head of an antique sculpture, unable to see the painted portrait on the table next to him. He is dressed like a scholar in a brown smock and pointed black cap, his time-worn face beautifully outlined against the dark background. Notice how the artist captured the delicate wrinkles on his forehead the shine on his cheek even the dirt under his fingernails.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the senses were usually represented as allegorical figures, often female. Ribera, however, intended more than a mere illustration of “touch.” By placing the small, unframed canvas on the table, he invited a comparison between the visual and tactile, between painting and sculpture—a reference, perhaps, to the rivalry between the arts that dominated aesthetic debate at the time.
Though Spanish, Ribera spent virtually all his career in Italy, and his art reflects the major artistic developments there. His early works betray the influence of Caravaggio in their dramatic effects of light and shadow, dark colors, and naturalistic style. In his later years, Ribera blended elements of Venetian and Northern European art to create highly personal compositions that influenced painting long after his death in 1652.
The Sense of Touch
c. 1615-16
Jusepe de Ribera (Spanish, 1591-1652)
On View
Seated at a wooden table, a blind man uses his hands to thoughtfully perceive a carved head, while a painting rests beside him, unnoticed. By depicting the sense of touch in this way, Jusepe de Ribera engaged in a long-standing debate over the merits of sculpture versus painting. Sculpture was considered the most accessible of the arts, since it could be understood through touch and vision. In his naturalistic rendering of the sculpture, however, Ribera also made a case for the virtuosity of painting. The artist used paint to create effects of texture and weight, emphasizing the man’s wrinkled hands supporting the heavy bust. Through vision, the painting appeals to the sense of touch, inviting viewers to imagine the sculpture’s smooth contours under their own fingertips.
Details
- Artist Name: Jusepe de Ribera (Spanish, 1591-1652)
- Title: The Sense of Touch
- Date: c. 1615-16
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 45-5/8 x 34-3/4 in. (115.9 x 88.3 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1965.1.052.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
?Feliks Feliksovich Iusupov, Kniaz’ (1887-1967), Moscow and St. Petersburg (until 1919), and Paris.
(sale, New York, Parke-Bernet, 9 April 1953, lot 194, as Spanish School, XVII Century, The Sculptor–Sense of Touch, to);
[Duveen Bros., New York, stock no. 30164, as Antonio de Puga, later changed to Pietro Novelli; sold, as Pietro Novelli, 1965 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
(sale, New York, Parke-Bernet, 9 April 1953, lot 194, as Spanish School, XVII Century, The Sculptor–Sense of Touch, to);
[Duveen Bros., New York, stock no. 30164, as Antonio de Puga, later changed to Pietro Novelli; sold, as Pietro Novelli, 1965 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
[on loan]
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1969 to 1969
[on loan]
- Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum, 1966 to 1966
Caravaggio and His Followers
- Cleveland Museum of Art, 1971-10-27 to 1972-02-02
Jusepe de Ribera lo Spagnoletto, 1591-1652
- Kimbell Art Museum, 1982-12-04 to 1983-02-06
Jusepe de Ribera: 1591-1652
- New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992-09-18 to 1992-11-29
Portraits: A Record of Changing Tastes. A Loan Exhibition
- Palm Beach, Society of the Four Arts, 1964-02-08 to 1964-03-01
Lock, Stock and Barrel: Norton Simon's Purchase of Duveen Brothers Gallery
- Norton Simon Museum, 2014-10-24 to 2015-02-16
Masterpieces of Five Centuries, Forty-Eight Paintings and Sculptures from the Norton Simon Foundation and the Norton Simon, Inc. Museum
- Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1972-10-04 to 1973-11-04
Reinstallation of Galleries: Art History of the 17th and 18th Century Gains Fresh Dimension
- Norton Simon Museum, 1993-09-02 to 1995-08-13
The Expressive Body: Memory, Devotion, Desire (1400-1750)
- Norton Simon Museum, 2021-10-15 to 2022-03-07
- Kowal, David M., Apollo, p. 326
- Waterhouse, Ellis, The Burlington Magazine, p. 248
- Hecht, Peter, Simiolus, fig. 2 pp. 125-136
- Felton, Craig, The Burlington Magazine, fig. 15 pp. 71-81
- Felton, Craig, Apollo, p. 143
- Felton, Craig, Apollo, fig. 8 p. 8
- Hughes, Robert, Time, p. 83
- Bolland, Andrea, Art Bulletin, n. 104, fig. 12 pp. 309, 321, 330
- Mayer, August L., Belvedere, pp. 261-262
- Longhi, Roberto, Paragone, pp. 74-78
- Schleier, Erich, Paragone, pp. 79-80
- Paoletti, John, Apollo, pp. 425-426
- Volpe, Carlo, Paragone, pp. 72-73
- Pepper, D. Stephen, Arte Illustrata, n. 9 p. 178
- Konecný, Lubomír, Paragone, pp. 85-92
- Milicua, José, Archivo Espagñol de Arte, 1952, pp. 309-322
- Mancini, Giulio, Considerazione sulla pittura, 1956, pp. 149-150
- Felton, Craig, Wadsworth Atheneum Bulletin, 1969, figs. 7, 10 pp. 2-7
- Spear, Richard E., Storia dell' arte, 1972, pp. 149-150
- Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E.; and Nicola Spinosa, L'opera completa del Ribera, 1978, no. 3, color pl. II p. 92
- Painting in Naples, 1606-1705: From Caravaggio to Giordano, 1983, no. 119
- Haraszti-Takács, Marianna, Spanish Genre Painting in the Seventeenth Century, 1983, no. 170, pl. 65
- Piero Corsino, Inc., Important Old Master Paintings and Discoveries of the Past Year, 1986, fig. 2 pp. 64, 66
- Morrison, Karl F., "I Am You": The Hermeneutics of Empathy in Western Literature, Theology, and Art, 1988, pl. 1 pp. 301-302
- Piero Corsino, Inc., Ribera inedito tra Roma e Napoli, 1989, pp. 5-6
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 38
- Wadsworth Atheneum Paintings II: Italy and Spain, Fourteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, 1991, pp. 32-322 (fig. 82)
- Spinosa, Nicola, Art e Dossier, 1992, p. 11
- Saunders Candlin, Enid, Christian Science Monitor, 1993, p. 16
- Velàzquez in Seville, 1996, under no. 11
- El Bodegóon Español [De Zubarán a Picasso], 1999, under no. 9
- Scholz-Hänsel, Michael, Jusepe de Ribera 1591-1652, 2000, fig. 2 pp. 24-31
- Johnson, Geraldine A., A Companion to Art Theory, 2002, plate 5.1 pp. 63-65
- Michaud, Cécile, Revue de'l art, 2003, fig. 11 p. 69
- Wadsworth Atheneum, Renaissance to Rococo: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 2003, fig. 29a p. 96-97
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. D44 p. 444
- Hilaire, Michel et al., Corps et ombres: Caravage et le caravagine european, 2012, Fig. 2 p. 350
- Rossela Vodret and Yusuke Kawase, 150th Anniverary of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and Italy "Caravaggio", 2016, Fig. 8 p. #71
- Knox, Giles, Sense Knowledge and the Challenge of Italian Renaissance Art: El Greco, Velázquez, Rembrandt, 2019, Fig. 86 p. 208; p. 209 (ill.)
- Satrústegui, Miguel (ed.) - various authors, Fundación Politeia: 50 años de cultura - II. de la Época del Barroco al Mundo Contemporáneo, 2020, Ribera - Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez pp. 149-185, p. 158 (ill.)
- Gudrun Swoboda (ed.), Idols & Rivals: Artistic Competition in Antiquity and the Early Modern Era, 2022, Fig. 3 p. 98 (ill.)
Image reproduction permission may be granted for scholarly or arts related commercial use. All image requests, regardless of their intended purpose, should be submitted via the reproduction request form.
Images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Additional permission may be required.
Approved requests for the reproduction of an image will receive a contract detailing all fees and conditions of use of the image. Upon receipt of both the signed contract and full payment, the Office of Rights and Reproductions will provide the image. A complimentary copy of the published material must be provided to the Norton Simon Museum.