A Meditation on Saint Jerome - Eric Fonteneau d’après Ribera

In A Meditation on Saint Jerome – Eric Fonteneau d’après Ribera, Colnaghi brings together two major paintings by Jusepe de Ribera (Xàtiva, 1591 – Naples, 1652) alongside a new suite of black chalk drawings by contemporary artist Eric Fonteneau, created in response to Ribera’s most contemplative depictions of Saint Jerome.

At the centre of the exhibition are three commanding, closely cropped heads; surrounding them, smaller sheets focus intimately on attributes such as hands, skulls, and manuscripts, through which thought and penance are made visible. Fonteneau’s draughtsmanship is disciplined and poised, his chiaroscuro both clear and resonant. Rather than imitating Ribera, these drawings interpret the master’s construction of light and psychology, now placed in direct dialogue with the two monumental canvases on view. The installation rewards slow looking and underscores the enduring relevance of Old Master pictorial thinking.

Eric Fonteneau (b. 1954, Cholet, France) is a French artist based between Paris and Nantes. Trained in Fine Art in Rennes, he privileges drawing for its precision and close relationship to writing. Since the 1980s, he has developed monumental landscape drawings and immersive environments such as La chambre des cartes and La Bibliothèque. His work has been exhibited internationally, from San Francisco and New York to Cologne, Tokyo, and Madrid, and includes projects at the Centre Pompidou, the Musée de l’Abbaye Sainte-Croix, and the Petit Palais.

Fonteneau’s practice ranges from folded maps to punctured-paper “atlases” and portraits of explorers and prophets, and his works are held in both public and private collections across Europe and the United States.