Christ Church Picture Gallery’s latest exhibition is once again unusual, taking us away from the Italy of Florence, Rome and the Veneto, and northern Europe, and introducing instead the least known group of Old Master drawings from the extensive Guise collection.

Neapolitan and Spanish Drawings from the Baroque, on view until May 15, shows 29 drawings from the 17th century and beyond, including works from artists Jusepe da Ribera, Salvator Rosa, Mattia Preti and Luca Giordano. Naples and Spain had close political, religious and cultural links during this period, enabling active artistic exchange. So, similarities between the two regions and contrasts can be seen in the works.

The show as good as starts with the third drawing displayed, a work that rather overshadows its neighbours. Jusepe de Ribera’s Figure of a female saint (St Irene) is a carefully finished presentation drawing (pictured), signed ready to give to a patron or friend, and one of the best surviving drawings by Ribera. Using red chalk heightened with white, he draws a woman looking down at an arrow in her hand; presumably it’s one of those shot at St Sebastian whom she nursed back to health. But it’s the woman herself, the concern in her face, her pose and drapery that Ribera makes the focus of this striking work. They follow that up with another of his, a small drawing of a spindly old man bound awkwardly to a tree, St Bartholomew’s small head, long arms and fingers characteristic of the artist’s pen work.

Several works communicate the drama and fervour of religious themes. Salvator Rosa’s St Peter Denying Christ caught my eye, his rapid expressive pen work transmitting the suppressed energy and uncertainty of denial and rejection. Fellow Neapolitan Preti’s oblong drawing of Christ burdened by the cross is similarly emphatic, accentuating both anguished face and the effort it took to heave that cross. Equally intense and full of movement are some little-known studies by Giordano showing Hercules’s labours, the hero killing the Nemean lion, subduing the Hydra, and wrestling with the giant Antaeus.