Jusepe de Ribera, born near Valencia, Spain at Xátiva, had been intended by his parents for a literary or learned career, but he had neglected these studies and is said to have apprenticed with the Spanish painter Francisco Ribalta in Valencia, although no proof of this connection exists.
Longing to study art in Italy, he had made his way to Rome via Parma, where he is recorded in 1611.
According to one source, a cardinal noticed him drawing from the frescoes on a Roman palace facade, and housed him.
Roman artists gave him the nickname "Lo Spagnoletto."
He became a follower of Caravaggio's style, one of the so-called Tenebrosi, or shadow-painters, owing to the sharp contrasts of light and shade marking their style.
He traveled to Parma, where he completed a painting on the subject of Jacob's Ladder, now in the Prado Museum, Madrid.
Ribera lived in Rome from 1613-16, on the Via Margutta, and associated with other Caravaggisti, including Gerrit van Honthorst and Hendrik ter Brugghen.
He then moved to Naples, to avoid his creditors, according to Giulio Mancini, who described him as extravagant.
He may also have already arranged his marriage, to the daughter of a Neapolitan painter, Giovanni Bernardino Azzolino, in November, 1616.
The Kingdom of Naples, at this time part of the Spanish Empire, has been ruled by a succession of Spanish Viceroys.
Ribera's Spanish nationality aligns him with the small Spanish governing class in the city, and also with the Flemish merchant community, from another Spanish territory, who include important collectors of and dealers in art.
Ribera has begun to sign his work as "Jusepe de Ribera, Español" or "Jusepe de Ribera, Spaniard".
He had been able to quickly attract the attention of the Viceroy, the Duke of Osuna, also recently arrived, who had given him a number of major commissions, which showed the influence of Guido Reni.
The period after Osuna was recalled in 1620 seems to have been difficult.
Few paintings survive from 1620 to 1626; but this was the period in which most of his best prints were produced.
These were at least partly an attempt to attract attention from a wider audience than Naples.
His career had picked up by the late 1620s, and he is accepted as the leading painter in Naples from this point forward.
Although Ribera will never return to Spain, many of his paintings will be taken back by returning members of the Spanish governing class, for example the Duke of Osuna, and his etchings are brought to Spain by dealers.
His influence can be seen in Velázquez, Murillo, and most other Spanish painters of the period.
In his earlier style, founded sometimes on Caravaggio and sometimes on the wholly diverse method of Correggio, the study of Spanish and Venetian masters can be traced.
Along with his massive and predominating shadows, he retains from first to last a great strength in local coloring.
His forms, though ordinary and sometimes coarse, are correct; the impression of his works gloomy and startling.
He delights in subjects of horror.
He is an important etcher, the most significant Spanish printmaker before Goya, producing about forty prints, nearly all in the 1620s.
