Luca Giordano Circle

Circle of LUCA GIORDANO (Naples, 1634 - 1705).
"The meeting between St. Charles Borromeo and St. Philip Neri".
Oil on canvas.
Presents label of the board on the back.
Measurements: 83 x 121 cm; 97 x 136 cm (frame).
In this painting, endowed with a rich narrative load and conformed by characters of sculptural and expressive bodies, the wake of Luca Giordano is appreciated. The use of luminous but filtered shades that drape tunics and cloaks, as well as the forcefulness of the figures, respond to the canons of Giordano's Neapolitan school. The scene represents the encounter between St. Charles Borromeo and St. Philip Neri. The main scene of this work depicts St. Charles Borromeo, dressed in cardinal's attire and pointing with his hand to a young man with his back to the viewer who is carrying an offering. His appearance, based on portraits of the period, includes an aquiline nose, a prominent forehead and a pale complexion. On the other hand, St. Philip, depicted as an old man, wears a cassock. Next to them, a landscape of great sumptuousness is developed, formed by a vaporous and powdery brushstroke.
A painter and engraver, known in Spain as Lucas Jordán, 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.