Luca Giordano Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, Etcher, b. 1632 - d. 1705

(b Naples, Italy 1632; d Naples, Italy, 1705) Italian painter and draughtsman. Giordano was one of the most celebrated artists of the Neapolitan Baroque School. Born in Naples in 1632, Giordano was the son of a painter, Antonio Giordano (c. 1597-1683), under whom he initially trained. However, it was Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652) who had the greatest impact on his developing style. Giordano may have worked in Ribera's studio, and his early works show a marked preference for half-length figures of old men and philosophers against dark backgrounds, made famous by his master. After Ribera's death in 1652, Giordano took the opportunity to travel to Rome where he continued his studies.* Known as 'Fa Presto' ('works quickly'), he became a prolific painter whose vast output included altarpieces, mythological paintings and many decorative cycles in both palaces and churches. Giordano moved away from the darker tenebrism practiced by Caravaggio and his followers, assimilating instead the ideas of light and glowing color, movement and dramatic action of the 16th-century Venetian artists and the Roman master Pietro da Cortona.** (Credit: *Christie’s, London, Important Old Master and British Pictures Including works from the Collection of Anton Philips, December 6, 2007, lot 68; **Christie’s, New York, Important Old Master Paintings, January 26, 2001, lot 33)