Page 38 - Luca Giordano - Liberation of St Peter

Fig. 1. RIBERA, Philosopher, oil on canvas, 140x 131 cm, Private collection, Madrid. Figs. 1a & 1b. LUCA GIORDANO, Heraclites and Democrates.
circa 1670, in floral surrounds by Giuseppe Recco (Naples 1634 - 1695 Alicante) Oil on canvas each: 71 x 55.9 cm (27.95 x 22.01 ins);
London,The Matthiesen Gallery.

painting Minerva Protecting Youth from Vice (Städelsches bow or a mirror. These were intended to add a personal
Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt) he started with a print from a touch to traditional compositions but also to make the
painting by Otto vanVeen (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm), interpretation of the pieces difficult. Many details taken
which today is often attributed to Rubens himself, from Rubens’ painting The Allegory of Peace (Museo del
and then proceeded to transform important details of Prado Madrid) are unclear and they have solicited entirely
the composition in a way that obscures the identification differing interpretations. Another well-known compos-
of several of its figures. A painting with reference to the ition, the so called Persephone (Musée des Beaux Arts,
myth of Adonis, probably from Marino’s L’Adone, pub- Caen), has been explained in a variety of ways. It derives
lished in Paris in 1623, is equally cryptic and its real from a collation of two different iconographic sources,
meaning will probably never be understood.22 Giordano Neptune and Marine Venus and Neptune and Cybeles, one
also ingeniously filled each of his many representations probably inspired by Poussin and the other by Rubens.
of Venus and Satyr, generally painted in aTitianesque vein, The iconography of some of these compositions might
with different symbols such as a globe, a blind Cupid, a have been more comprehensible in Giordano’s day, but
even if they are often obscure in meaning, their short-
22. Luca Giordano 1634-1705, quoted above, n. 20, pp. 116f. comings are always compensated for by the material
beauty of the painting itself.

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