Page 23 - Luca Giordano - Liberation of St Peter
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Fig. 6. DOMENICO GARGIULLO, Piazza del Mercato during the Revolt of Masaniello. Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.
which lurches perilously forward on the desolate plain. marks of injury and disease, spreads across the foreground,
They seem to recall the communal prayers which had whilst in the background corpse bearers struggle to
filled Naples during the plague, and in the foreground cleanse the city’s streets.These plague victims are clear-
kneel St Candida and St Asprenus, both of whom had ly indebted to those in Mattia Preti’s plague bozzetti, and
been baptised by Peter in Naples.Their presence suggests include, as he had done, the motif taken from Raphael of
the city’s ancient links with the Apostle, and with the the child at the dead mother’s breast. But they are less
earliest days of the Christian church.22 In the Saint Januarius
darkness yields to light, and the painting unites heaven 22. Luca Giordano, 1634-1705, catalogue of exhibition, Naples 2001-
and earth.An horrific frieze of dead bodies, women, chil- 2002, cat.31a.
dren, and men, decomposing, blackened, and bearing
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