page_title: Ixion (Ribera)
section_title: Reception
hierarchical_section_title: Ixion (Ribera) / Reception
context_page_description: Ixion is a 1632 oil painting, signed and dated by Jusepe de Ribera. It shows a scene from Classical mythology, of Ixion being is being tortured as the eternal punishment meted out by Zeus. It is one of a series of four paintings by Ribera of the four "Furies" or "Condemned" from Greek mythology. It is held by the Museo del Prado in Madrid, along with Ribera's painting of Tityos; the other two, of Sisyphus and Tantalus, are lost.
context_section_description: It is not known who commissioned Ribera's series of the "Furies", though its large format and theme of torture inflicted on rebels against just authority suggests a royal commission.  All four paintings were sold in 1634 by the Marquesa de Charela (mother of Maria de Charela, who was a mistress of Philip IV of Spain and mother of his short-lived illegitimate son Fernando Francisco Isidro de Austria), and bought by Jerónimo de Villanueva, protonotary of the Council of Aragon, for the Spanish royal collection.  They were displayed at the Royal Alcázar of Madrid, and Ixion and Tityus were moved the Buen Retiro Palace, where they remained until they were transferred to the Prado after it was founded in 1819.  Ribera's paintings of Sisyphus and Tantalus are lost, possibly among the 500 works destroyed in the 1734 fire at the Royal Alcázar.
  The art historian Jonathan Brown has suggested that the painting of Ixion was intended to be displayed in a vertical format, so the satyr appears in a more normal upright position and the composition appears more balanced, but the placement of the signature implies a horizontal format.
caption: Ribera's Ixion in a vertical orientation
exif: {}