blackpaint20:

Man with a Skull / St Peter of Alcantara in Meditation

Attributed to manner of Ribera, Jusepe de (Spanish painter and printmaker, baptized in 1591, died 1652, active in Italy)

1630- 1640

Against a dark background, only the bold head of a wrinkled man and his hand emerge from the shadows. He is seen at profile, holding a skull. The dark gown worn by the man combined with his meditating pose, have led scholars to suggest the subject as St Jerome or St Peter of Alcantara. Compared to other paintings by Luca Giordano, this work is characterised by a more subtle use of light. Areas of shade overcome the whole painting, whereas Giordano’s works were more characteristically marked by a skilful, Caravaggiesque representation of light.

This seems to be an almost identical version of a painting in Munich, Hl. Petrus von Alcantara in Meditation by J. Ribera (see Franzosische und Spanische Malerei, Munich, 1972, cat. no. 909 pp. 90-91, ill. fig. 42). Assuming the painting in Munich is an original by Ribera, another three versions exist, all of a lower quality than the Sheffield work. One is in a private collection in Scotland; one in a private collection in Spain; and one in the Kereszteny Museum in Eszergom, Hungary. Although of high quality, it is likely that the Sheffield work was painted by a follower of Ribera.

Quoted from source