Luca Giordano

LUCA GIORDANO (Naples, 1634 - 1705).
"St. Anne with the Virgin".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 77 x 60 cm; 85 x 70 cm (frame).
This work presents great similarities with the painting of Luca Giordano, located in the Church Dei Cappuccini, of Noci, located in the south of Italy. Through a simple pyramidal composition of classical character, the author places Saint Anne and the Child in the center of a border that closes the composition, thus creating an intimate scene where the tenderness between mother and daughter coexists with the majesty of the protagonists. The author presents us with the figure of Saint Anne, rotund and monumental, who serves as a shelter and support for her daughter. The grandeur and determination of the forms make up a scene of scenographic and triumphal character, where the light falls on the protagonists in a kindly way providing a great radiance. It is an example of the most advanced and decorative moment of this language, typically baroque.
Luca Giordano was the most prominent Neapolitan painter of the late seventeenth century, and one of the main representatives of the last Italian Baroque.painter and engraver, known in Spain as Lucas Jordan, Giordano enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime, both in his native Italy and in our country. However, after his death his work was often criticized for its speed of execution, opposed to the Greco-Latin aesthetics. It is believed that he was formed in the environment of Ribera, whose style he followed at first. However, he soon traveled to Rome and Venice, where he studied Veronese, whose influence has been felt ever since in his work. This trip was key to the maturation of his style, as well as the influences of other artists such as Mattia Preti, Rubens, Bernini and, above all, Pietro da Cortona. At the end of the 1670s Giordano began his great mural decorations (Montecassino and San Gregorio Armeno in Naples), which were followed from 1682 by other projects, including the mural paintings in the gallery and library of the Palazzo Medici Ricardi in Florence. In 1692 he was called to Madrid to carry out mural works in the monastery of El Escorial, where he worked from 1692 to 1694. Later he also painted the office and bedroom of Charles II in the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, and after these he undertook the paintings of the Casón del Buen Retiro (ca. 1697), the sacristy of the cathedral of Toledo (1698), the royal chapel of the Alcázar and San Antonio de los Portugueses (1699). However, royal commissions ceased with the arrival of Philip V in 1701 and the beginning of the War of Succession, so Giordano returned to Naples in 1702, although from there he continued to send paintings to Spain. Today Giordano's works are kept in the most important art galleries around the world, including the Prado Museum, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Louvre in Paris, the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna, the Metropolitan in New York and the National Gallery in London.