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Ribera, Lo Spagnoletto, was active in Naples where, influenced by the followers of Caravaggio, the master of tenebroso, he built up a pictorial world based on dramatic contrasts of light and shade. In representing a psychological phenomenon or a tragic situation he liked to utilize the possibilities offered by the wrinkles of the face. Like all painters of his period, particularly Spanish artists, he usually depicted religious themes. But he also liked to paint old people - for example imaginary portraits of writers and the sages of antiquity; and because he used brownish tints and emphasized the contrasting light and shade caused by facial wrinkles Ribera used to be called 'the Rembrandt of the South'.
Although all such comparisons are usually pointless, it is true that Ribera's portrait of the old woman indicates an approach not unlike that of Rembrandt. It is a study of a character highly typical of the age, for in the seventeenth century money-lenders played an important role in the economic life of the country, in Italy as in the Netherlands. A money-lender not only lent money, he also changed money and acted as a banker.
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