Luca Giordano
Biography of Neapolitan Baroque Fresco Painter.
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Phineas and His Companions
turned to Stone by Perseus (c.1680)
National Gallery, London.

Luca Giordano (1634-1705)

Contents

• Biography
• Early Art Training and Commissions
• Style of Painting
• Frescoes in Florence
• Court Painter in Spain
• Final Years in Naples
• Legacy and Reputation

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Biography

One of the most important Old Masters in Italy, during the second half of the seventeenth century, Luca Giordano played a particularly important role in Neapolitan Baroque painting, ranking alongside Jusepe Ribera (1591-1652), but ahead of Battistello Caracciolo (1578-1635), Giovanni Lanfranco (1582-1647), Mattia Preti (1613-99) and Francesco Solimena (1657-1747) in terms of impact and influence. Like many Italian Baroque artists from Naples, he was initially drawn to Caravaggism due to the influence of Ribera. But his style broadened with his travels, becoming more colourful under the influence of first Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669) and then Venetian painting, notably the works of Paolo Veronese (1528-88). In his maturity he came to specialize in ecclesiastical fresco painting - although he was also a master of drawing and completed a large number of smaller works in oils. While best known for his work in the Neapolitan School of painting, Giordano was also active in Venice and Florence, and spent a decade (c.1692-1702) at the Spanish Habsburg Court of Charles II, carrying out important works of decorative art in Toledo, Madrid and the Escorial Palace. His best Baroque paintings include: Phineas and His Companions turned to Stone by Perseus (c.1680, National Gallery, London); the dome of the Cappella Corsini in the Florentine church of the Carmine; the huge ballroom ceiling of the Medici-Riccardi Palace in Florence (1682-85); Homage to Velazquez (1692-5, National Gallery, London); the ceilings in the Escorial; the colossal Christ Expelling the Traders from the Temple (1704) in the church of the Padri Girolamini, Naples; the Triumph of Judith (1704) in the dome of the Certosa di S. Martino, Naples.

Early Art Training and Commissions

Born in Naples, the son of Antonio Giordano, who was also a painter, Luca Giordano was first trained in the workshop of Ribera, where he learned the use of tenebrism (for dramatic focus) and chiaroscuro (for modelling). In about 1652, perhaps just after the death of Ribera, he first left Naples for a short period of study in Rome, Florence and Venice, paying particular attention to the Baroque art of Pietro da Cortona in Rome, as well as the great masters of sixteenth-century Venice - such as Titian, Veronese and their followers. (See also: Titian and Venetian Colour Painting.) In Venice he won his first commissions: to paint altarpieces for the churches of S. Pietro in Castello, S. Maria del Pianto and S. Spirito. (See also: Venetian Altarpieces.)

Style of Painting

He was back in Naples in 1653 where he began to develop a style of Baroque painting based on the Roman and Venetian techniques he had learned about on his travels, although he never entirely abandoned his links with Ribera's naturalism, which itself was derived from the great Caravaggio (1571-1610). (See also: Caravaggio in Naples.) This process, however, took time: his oscillation between the two traditions continued for a decade, during which time he survived the terrible plague of 1656 and managed to study paintings in private collections in Naples by Rubens (1577-1640) and Poussin (1594-1665). He also drew close to the style of Mattia Preti, whose work he in turn influenced. In this period he showed his capacity to synthesize into a personal style what he had learnt from the Venetian masters. He also became an extremely rapid and prolific painter, earning himself the nickname of Luca fa presto. (Luke work fast). In 1665 Giordano was in Florence again (working for the Medici amongst others) and later in Venice. His great fresco painting in Naples dates from some years after his return: the one in the Abbey of Montecassino, destroyed in the Second World War, dates from 1677—78, the cupola of S. Brigida, Naples (the church where he was eventually buried) is of 1678 and the Life of S. Gregorio Armeno, in the church of the same name at Naples, was painted in about 1678—79. By this time Giordano's fame was enormous both in Italy and abroad.

Frescoes in Florence

During another visit to Florence in 1682 he painted the dome of the Cappella Corsini in the church of the Carmine, and began the bozzetti for the Library (Allegory of Divine Wisdom), and the gallery of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi (allegorical figures - such as the Cardinal Virtues, and the Elements of Nature - and mythological themes - like the Rape of Proserpine, the Triumphal procession of Bacchus, the Death of Adonis, Ceres and Triptolemus) which he completed after a brief return visit to Naples in 1685. These murals are the masterpiece of Giordano's maturity and mark a tremendous development both in his powers of narrative invention and in his style of mythological painting: the latter combined the grandiose manner of Pietro da Cortona with the decorative skills of Veronese.

Court Painter in Spain

Experiencing a degree of competitive rivalry from his young Neapolitan contemporary, Francesco Solimena, Giordano continued working in Naples until 1692, when he was summoned to Spain by the Habsburg Emperor Charles II. Over the next decade, assisted by pupils including Aniello Rossi and Matteo Pacelli, he completed a number of grandiose decorative schemes in the Escorial, in the Palace of Buen Retiro, Madrid and in the sacristy of Toledo Cathedral. He also painted dozens of pictures for the Spanish court, for private patrons, monasteries and churches (San Antonio de los Portugueses, Madrid; Monastery of Nuestra Senora, Guadalupe). His tireless contribution to Spanish Baroque painting was considered to be almost miraculous. After the death of Charles II, Giordano decided to go home; he left Spain in February 1702 and after a brief pause in Livorno returned to Naples.

Final Years in Naples

Giordano remained extremely active in his last years. He worked in the church of S. Maria Egiziaca at Forcella, painted the Martyrdom of S. Gennaro for S. Spirito dei Napoletani in Rome and decorated the Cappella del Tesoro in the Certosa di S. Martino, Naples, which was finished by April 1704. The Meeting of S. Carlo Borromeo and S. Filippo Neri in the Girolamini church, Naples, is also of 1704. At the time of his death, Giordano was engaged on several other projects, including the sacristy of S. Brigida, Naples which was completed by his pupils working from his bozzetti.

Legacy and Reputation

Throughout the various phases of his career Giordano exercised a vast influence on contemporary painters in Naples, Florence and Venice. He gained enormous wealth and fame during his long career and even his last works, which already demonstrate a move from the grandiosity of the late Baroque to the irridescent lightness of the Rococo, were admired throughout the 18th century: his admirers including the great Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806). It is however only recently that his sketching has been fully appreciated. Though outshone by the grand manner of Pietro da Cortona, on the one hand, and the dazzling colour of Tiepolo, on the other, Giordano nevertheless holds the middle ground and thus earns his place as an important artist of the late Baroque.

Paintings by Luca Giordano can be seen in several of the best art museums in Europe, and in churches across Italy.

• For more about Italian Baroque painting, see: Homepage.
• For analysis of important frescoes, see: Famous Paintings Analyzed.