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Luca Giordano (Naples, 1634 - 1704) the Death of Abel Ca

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Luca Giordano (Naples, 1634 - 1704) the Death of Abel Ca Luca Giordano (Naples, 1634 - 1704) The Death of Abel Ca. 1660 Oil on canvas 151.5 x 203 cm. Inscribed at the upper right: “Au[...]/ Giordano/ f” Exhibited in: Luca Giordano. Le triomphe de la peinture napolitane, Paris, 14/11/19 to 23/02/20, Petit Palais – Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, p. 63 (cat. 23). Expertise by Giuseppe Porzio Luca Giordano was a Neapolitan painter who acquired the nickname of “Luca, fa presto” due to the fact that his father, the painter Antonio Giordano, constantly encouraged him to paint faster. He was the most important painter in Naples in the second half of the 17th century, introducing a softer and lighter style into the prevailing Baroque manner. Through the mediation of his protector the Viceroy, Giordano’s father succeeded in enrolling his son at a very young age in José Ribera’s studio where after just a few years he could paint in that artist’s manner. 1 By the age of thirteen Giordano already possessed the technique, confidence and expectations of a fully established artist. Despite his father’s opposition he ran away to Rome where he lived from copying Raphael, Michelangelo and above all Pietro da Cortona, who became his second major influence, and some works by Giordano of this period have been confused with those of Cortona. During this period the artist went to Venice, painting works for a large number of the city’s churches: La Madonna della Grazie con le anime del purgatorio for the church of Santa Maria in Castello (Venice), The Deposition for the church of Santa Maria del Pianto (now in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice), a Virgin and Child with Saint Joseph and Saint Anthony of Padua for the church of the Spirito Santo (now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan). In 1654 Giordano returned to Naples where he secured his first documented commission. During the following decade he fully assimilated the influences he had already encountered, from late Ribera to the mature Rubens, Preti, Van Dyck, Cortona and the Venetians, giving rise to a synthesis notable for the original treatment of the paint, which now flows and dissolves in a transparent, golden luminosity. In 1667 Giordano returned to Venice where he painted The Assumption of the Virgin for Santa Maria della Salute. In 1672 he painted the pala for the high altar of the parish church of San Gregorio Magno in Crispano. Also from that period is The Annunciation, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. The present magnificent painting should be dated between 1654 and 1667, after Giordano had returned and settled in his native city following his time in Venice and before he returned there. In the late 1670s Giordano focused on major decorative schemes in fresco. The first, dating from 1678 and 1679, were the cycles of Saint Bridget in Naples and The Life of Saint Benedict for the church of San Gregorio Armeno. In 1680 the artist went to Florence where Neri and Bartolomeo Corsini commissioned him to paint the frescos on the dome of the chapel of the Carmelite church. The following year he returned to Naples, summoned by the Marquis of Carpio, the Spanish Viceroy, and painted The Crossing of the Red Sea, now in Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. In early 1682 Giordano returned to Florence to finish the Corsini chapel and between 1682 and 1683 executed one of his masterpieces on the vast ceiling of the ball room of the Medici-Ricardi palace. In 1684 he returned to Naples and painted the frescos on the interior wall of the main façade of the Gerolamini. The artist’s growing fame led to the invitation from Charles II of Spain who hoped to secure Giordano’s services in the decoration of El Escorial. 2 It was there that the artist produced what is considered his second great masterpiece: the decoration of the palace and monastery, which allowed him to develop a new style and move towards a new thematic content based on the Old Testament which reflected both the interest of the court and his own. 3 This iconography had appeared in his work some years before in compositions such as the present one, based on Genesis. Giordano thus arrived in Spain in April 1692 accompanied by his son Niccoló, his nephew Giuseppe and three assistants: Aniello Rossi, Matteo Pacelli, G. Battista Sottile, a servant, his confessor, and also Paolo de Matteis according to Baldinucci. Palomino’s detailed study of Giordano’s work in Spain can be confirmed by the written documentation and the known commissions of this period. Giordano embarked on his Spanish period by painting the ceiling of the staircase in the monastery of El Escorial. This was rapidly followed by the scenes of David and Solomon and the cycles on biblical narratives. According to the official records of Patrimonio Nacional, Giordano painted series on Noah, the Prodigal Son, Samson, Abraham and Jacob. He also produced series on saints, mythological themes and New Testament subjects. Finally, he painted the two cycles of The Life of the Virgin (now in Guadalupe and Vienna), the frescos on the ceiling of the Casón del Buen Retiro in Madrid, those in the Sacristy of Toledo cathedral and those in San Antonio de los Alemanes (Madrid). Giuseppe Porzio’s study of the work is reproduced here, as follows: “The composition depicts Cain’s flight and damnation after the murder of Abel who, lying dead in the foreground, is the principal element in the painting. The presence of the angel, which does not correspond to the biblical text (Genesis, 4: 8-14) and which is unusual in this iconographic tradition, is also to be found in another version of this subject by Giordano. The present author has located a replica of the present work in the Fine Arts Museum in Ekaterinburg which is not included in the various editions of the monograph by Oreste Ferrari and Giuseppe Scavizzi (1966, 1992, 2000, 2003), however the poor quality of the photographs makes it impossible to offer an opinion. 4 The signature on the present painting (at the lower left near Abel’s head) seems convincing although it has been reinforced at a later date. The rarity of this subject in Giordano’s vast oeuvre and its particular style offer a significant contribution to knowledge of this artist and his working method. In fact, this work presents all the characteristics of Giordano’s Baroque manner: the monumentality, theatricality of the poses and the heroic grandeur of the narrative. The development of the action is based on a compositional idea typical of the artist, which consists of unfolding the figures from left to right in parallel to the viewer’s plane. This is frequently found in his output, from the early composition of The Sacrifice of Isaac (Naples, private collection) to the last version of that subject and including Christ attended by Angels in the monastery of El Escorial. Abel’s body was reused by Giordano in an inverted direction in the lower centre of Saint Januarius interceding before the Virgin and Christ in the Plague of 1656 in the church of Santa Maria del Pianto in Naples (fig. 1). 5 The precise dating of The Death of Abel within the artist’s oeuvre is more difficult to establish. Any attempt to give it a precise date is complicated by Giordano’s creative process, in which the artist combined and updated models and themes from different periods. Without any doubt and despite its naturalistic character (or pseudo-naturalistic, given that Giordano’s naturalism was always simulated), the painting would seem to adhere most closely to the artist “neo-Riberesque” phase. The painting should thus be dated to the first half of the 1660s when Giordano started to use more fluid paint in comparison with the heavy impasto of his earlier technique that imitated Ribera (evident in works such as The Good Samaritan in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen). 6 The degree of maturity of the artist here, which can be determined by comparison with a securely dated work, is close to the series of paintings in the church of Santa Maria della Sanità in Naples which have a documented date of 1667. 7 Specifically, there are similarities with the principal figure in The Preaching of Saint Vincent Ferrer (fig. 2), whose physical type is relatively close to that found in The Death of Abel. Finally, it should be noted that a Death of Abel by Luca Giordano, a “composition with three figures”, was included in the sale of the Herrenschwand collection on 24 January 1810 at the Hôtel Bullion in Paris. 8 1. According to Palomino, during this period the artist “came close to the style of José de Ribera and so closely adhered to his manner that he produced works of his own invention which seemed to be originals by the master.” De Domenici, who was well informed about the works present in Naples, also observed that Giordano “copiava assai bene le cose del maestro, e faceva anche qualcosa de sé, imitando le battaglie di Aniello Falcone.” Among works that “son tenute in pregio, per memoria delle sue prime fatiche” he referred to those in the chapel of the congregation of students of the Jesuit seminary next to the Gesú Vecchio, uncluding “un uomo e una donna resuscitati de San Francesco Saverio.” 2. According to De Domenici, his arrival was largely due to Cristóbal Ontañón (special envoy to the Kingdom of Naples), who on his return to Madrid praised the artist for his talents and speed.
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