Francisco Ribalta

Ribalta was born in Catalonia; he worked in Madrid and from 1599 in Valencia. His earlier work is based principally on painters like Juan Fernández de Navarrete (who was court painter to Philip II and engaged on work at the Escorial for him) with influence from Sebastiano del Piombo and other 16th-century Italian painters, some of whose works were to be found in Spain. Ribalta's later paintings show knowledge of Caravaggio, a selection of whose pictures had reached Spain by about 1620.