Page 26 - Luca Giordano - Liberation of St Peter
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Fig. 9. LUCA GIORDANO, The Liberation of St Peter. Private collection. gest the prisoners in the Liberation. But another small
I n the early 1660s Giordano’s art underwent great group of paintings are closer to this work, and, in a similar
swings of style. Some of the works of this period
return directly to Caravaggio, as in the Christ at the Column way, unite elements of Ribera’s naturalism with a classical
(Naples, priv. coll)24 where the shadowy, onlookers sug-
symmetry and grace of figure. Most striking of these are
24. Luca Giordano 1634-1705, catalogue of exhibition, Naples 2001-
2002, cat. no. 37. the St Michael, (see Fig. 9, p.43, in the following essay by
25. Ibid., cat. nos. 35, 54. G. Scavizzi) so close in colour and in the painting of flesh,
26. Ibid., cat. no. 55.
and also the compositionally balanced Jacob wrestling with
the Angel (coll. Martinelli Morellini).25 A little later, when
Giordano again painted the Liberation of St Peter, (priv.
Coll., Fig. 9, p.24)26 he moved away from Raphael’s
24
