Lot 214: *LUCA GIORDANO, CALLED FA PRESTO (1632-1705)

signed and dated lower center Lucas Jordanus/F./1657 oil on canvas Giordano's early style was formed under the influence of Ribera, the primary Neapolitan painter of the day and most probably the younger artist's master at some point early on. A trip to Rome in 1652 exposed Giordano to other influences, including the dominant Baroque idiom of Pietro da Cortona, but also the works left in Rome by the young Peter Paul Rubens some 45 years earlier. The present work was painted in 1657 (see note below), the same year as the famous Madonna del Rosario (for the church of the Solitaria, Naples, now in the Capodimonte) which exhibits the artist's new interest in color (a combination of Rubensian and Venetic influences). His contemporaries noticed this change; some years later De Dominici in discussing the Solitaria picture noted that Giordano "fece... un quadro del SS. Rosario con bella invenzione, e colorito ad imitazione del suo primo maestro lo Spagnoletto, col bel componere del Veronese... Egli è mirabile per la freschezza del colore [made... a painting of the most holy Rosary of beautiful invention, and colored in imitation of his first master Lo Spagnoletto, with the beautiful arrangement of Veronese... It is astounding for its freshness of color.]'' Due to the misreading of the date at the time of the 1963 sale (see Provenance below), the importance of this painting had not hitherto been recognized. It reflects very closely the style of Ribera in such works as the Immaculate Conception of 1637 in the Harrach collection, Schloss Rohrau (see A.E. Pérez Sànchez, L'opera completa del Ribera, 1978, pp. 109-10, no. 106), but also is an important example of Giordano's transition from his earliest, Riberesque works to a more mature style (see note above).. The present painting will be included in the third volume addendum of the catalogue raisonne of Luca Giordano by Oreste Ferrari and Giovanni Scavizzi, in preparation.

Count Razumovsky, by whom taken to Russia in the 18th century Princess Glebovo-Streshnevo-Shahovskoy, Moscow Art market, U.S.A., 1926 Oscar B. Cintas (Sale: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., May 1, 1963, lot 19, described as Giordano `after Murillo' and as dated 1682) purchased by Gerard Sale: Christie's, New York, January 31, 1997, lot 215 Exhibited: Winter Park, Florida, Rollins College, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Italian Renaissance & Baroque Paintings in Florida Museums, March 14-May 5, 1991