Studies of Two Ears and of a Bat. Below, the motto: FULGET SEMPER VIRTUS

Art Historical Context

Jusepe de Ribera, known as Lo Spagnoletto, created this intimate drawing during his long career in Naples, where he blended Spanish and Italian artistic traditions. The sheet captures two carefully observed human ears alongside a delicate study of a bat, paired with the Latin motto “FULGET SEMPER VIRTUS,” or “Virtue always shines.” Such combinations of anatomical fragments and symbolic creatures were common in Baroque workshops, allowing artists to explore form while hinting at moral or emblematic meanings. Executed in red chalk with brush and red wash on beige paper, the work highlights Ribera’s mastery of tonal subtlety. The soft, velvety medium lets him model the curving surfaces of the ears and the fragile membrane of the bat’s wings with gentle gradations of light and shadow. A ruled black-chalk border neatly frames the composition, suggesting the sheet may have served as a presentation piece or a page in a collector’s album. Today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection, the drawing offers visitors a glimpse into the private, experimental side of a celebrated master. Its modest size—roughly six by eleven inches—invites close looking, rewarding attention to the precise linework and the intriguing dialogue between natural observation and symbolic inscription.