Relatively little is known between Ribera's birth in 1591 in the modest but ancient city of Jatíva, in the province of Valencia, the son of a shoemaker, and 1611, when, in the service of Prince Ranuccio Farnese, he received payment in Parma for the Saint Martin altarpiece in the Church of San Prospero (now lost, but known from an engraving). A recent study of the early career of the artist has decisively rejected the earlier hypothesis that he first studied with Ribalta, and we remain ignorant about his earlier training. There has been speculation that he journeyed to Rome via Naples but it is worth considering the possibility that he travelled to Rome and Naples via Genoa , Lombardy, and Parma/Bologna. This conjecture would not be contradicted by the most trustworthy guide to early seventeenth century painting, Giulio Mancini, who states that the young Ribera journeyed through Lombardy to see the work of those able men.’ In order to have received such an important commission as the San Prospero altarpiece on public view in Parma, a major artistic centre, Ribera must already have been held in considerable esteem.