Luca Giordano
(18 October 1632 - 3 January 1705) |
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frescos, secular, mythological narratives Art Work
| Name: |
Luca Giordano |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Naples, Italy |
| Nationality: |
Italian |
| Birth: |
18 October 1632 |
| Death: |
3 January 1705 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
frescos, secular, mythological narratives |
| Medium: |
fresco, etching |
| Method: |
fresco, etching |
| Style: |
Italian Baroque |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
Printmaking
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Biography
| A bora painter whose ebullient style gained him international fame, Luca Giordano worked so swiftly that he earned the nickname "Luca fa Presto." He reportedly covered the cupola of the treasury of S. Martino in Naples with frescoes in forty-eight hours. He executed the high altarpiece for S. Francesco Saverio in one day. He painted pictures of every size, worked in all mediums, and treated every conceivable subject. Contemporary reports judged that his large studio produced nearly 5,000 paintings, not counting his many mural cycles. In Naples few churches are without an altarpiece by him. Most Italian and many European and American collections also represent his work. The Prado alone has fifty paintings. An important link between the ponderous decorative manner of the mid-seventeenth century and the lighter and more delicate approach of the rococo, Giordano was greatly esteemed in the eighteenth century. Among his admirers was Fragonard. Luca first studied with his father, Antonio Giordano (d. ca. 1681), who settled in Naples and worked there mainly as a copyist. While it is uncertain that Luca formally trained with Ribera, he clearly copied and emulated Ribera's work- He may also have studied with Falcone. In 1665 he joined the Naples Guild, and in 1666 we have a record of his marriage to Margherita d'Ardi. Although he was based in Naples, Giordano's career was far flung. He worked in Rome (the first time was apparently in 1654) and in Florence (from 1679 to 1685 with interruptions); in 1692 Charles II invited him to Spain, where he became court painter. In 1702 he traveled to Genoa, Florence, and Rome, where Clement XI received him with honors. Because he worked in more than one style simultaneously, adapting his approach to the demands of a commission, his development is difficult to outline with any simplicity. The epitome of the eclectic artist, Giordano borrowed to suit his diverse needs. He variously emulated the styles of Ribera and Pietro da Cortona and drew often from the Venetians, as well as casting an eye to such diverse figures as Polidoro da Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Lanfranco, Durer, Rembrandt, van Dyck, and Rubens. He had a great ability to re-interpret given styles and figure types, to modify and adapt pre-existing motifs, and to cast them into new contexts. Giordano's earliest activity centered in Naples, involving mainly altarpieces and other decorations for Neapolitan churches. Among them are the works he did for S. Maria di Verita (Chapel of S. Nicola di Tolentino), S. Maria Regina Coeli (Passion Scenes and S. Agostino), S. Marta (dated 1651, S. Luke). He also emulated Ribera's subjects such as the half-length figures of "beggar-philosophers" and "scientist-philosophers." See, for example, his Democritus (Hamburg, Kunsthalle); Philosophers (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum). Already an artistic sponge, Giordano responded to other sources, always absorbing and transforming them. Around 1652 or probably shortly after Ribera's death, Giordano set out on his first Northern journey, visiting Rome, Bologna, Lombardy, and Venice. There Venetian color and light had a particular impact on him, and he in turn gave Venice her freshest altarpieces of the century. His Deposition (Venice, Accademia) adopts the energy and spontaneity of Veronese and Tintoretto. Back in Naples in 1653, Giordano made his color grow richer and more glowing, his figures more active and animated, his paint more fluid, his modeling more solid. In full command of bold compositions, Giordano excelled in such works as S. Bridgit (dated 1655, Naples, Museo Nazionali di Capodimonte) and The Madonna of the Rosary (dated 1657, Naples, Museo Nazionali di Capodimonte), as well as the Deposition (Monte di Misericordia). One of his most accomplished paintings is the fresco depicting the Cleansing of the Temple, done for S. Filippo Neri (Gerolomini), wherein the figures' movement is carefully calculated to activate the picture's surface. Giordano's fame was such that he was flooded with commissions and honors. Around 1664 he was in Venice painting the Assumption of the Virgin for S. Maria della Salute; in 1665 he worked in Florence; in Venice (ca. 1674) he added The Birth of the Virgin and The Presentation of the Virgin to S. Maria della Salute's Marian program. Here his interest in grace, light, and gentle expression reflect his personal adaptation of Pietro da Cortona's idiom. Returning to Naples, Giordano was constantly engaged on large fresco cycles. He executed a project for the Abbey of Montecassino (done between 1677 and 1678) nad destroyed during World War II.) His cupola for S. Brigida dates from 1678; his Life of S. Gregorio Armeno, done for S. Gregorio Armeno, was painted around 1678-79. Between 1682 and 1685 he was back in Florence, painting the dome of the Cappella Corsini in the Carmine and completing the frescoes for the library and gallery of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi. Pietro da Cortona's natural successor, Giordano tackled this complex and large series of allegories with evident zest. His Apotheosis of Human Life; Apotheosis of the Medici; Divine Knowledge exhibit the brio and verve of his mature style. Effortlessly conflating illusion and abstraction, these joyful decorations make symbols come alive in a spontaneous and natural manner. From 1685 to 1692 Giordano worked in Naples, where scholars point to another shift in style, based on his study of Bernini, Le Brun,* and Mignard,* as evidenced in his altarpiece for the Church of Rosariello alle Pigne of around 1687. In Spain by 1692, he was active for ten years, executing large decorative programs in the palace of Buen Retiro, in the Escorial, and in the sacristy of Toledo Cathedral, all of which are important for the development of later Spanish painting. Between 1692 and 1694 he covered the vaults of the church of the Escorial with The Glorification of St. Lawrence, still in situ. His frescoes for the Buen Retiro, the palace of the Queen Mother, and the palace of Aranjuez (ca. 1696-97) are lost or damaged. His last Spanish effort was the decoration of the church of S. Antonio de los Portugueses of 1700, for which preparatory sketches are preserved in London, National Gallery; Auckland, Art Gallery; Dijon, Musee Magnin. In their dense expressive power, these clearly prefigure Goya. Giordano also painted a fascinating series of easel pictures as homages to other artists. His Homage to Veldzquez is in the National Gallery, London, and his Homage to Rubens is in the Prado, Madrid. Giordano left Spain in 1702 after Charles II's death and returned to Naples, still prolific to the end. He completed the decorations for the Cappella del Tesoro in the Certosa di S. Martino in Naples in 1704 with a ceiling fresco depicting the Triumph of Judith. With its ingenious use of foreshortening and luminosity, it helps inaugurate rococo ceiling painting. That same year he produced the Meeting between S. Carlo Borromeo and S. FUippo Neri in the Church of the Gerolomini. After his death, Giordano's assistants completed many other projects using his oil sketches. |
Samples of Work
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