Calle del Españoleto
The street honors the Golden Age painter José de Ribera, nicknamed “the little Spaniard” in the Naples where he made almost all his work.
Behind the name is a Valencian who barely set foot in Spain as an adult. José de Ribera was born in Játiva in 1591 and left for Italy very young. Caravaggio’s raw light and violent contrasts marked him, and he ended up settling in Naples, then a domain of the Spanish crown, where he built almost his entire career.
There they gave him the nickname that stays with him to this day: lo Spagnoletto, the Italian diminutive of “Spaniard”. Rendered into Spanish as “Españoleto”, the nickname overtook his name. He died in Naples in 1652 without ever returning home. His tortured saints, ragged philosophers and martyrdoms hang today in the Prado and around half the world.
The calle del Españoleto runs quiet and stately between Santa Engracia and Zurbano, flanked by palatial-looking buildings. It fits the logic of the Almagro neighborhood, where several streets bear the names of great painters.