Page 39 - Luca Giordano - Liberation of St Peter
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A still different case is represented by Giordano’s It would appear that the young Giordano was uncer-
Riberesque works. Most of these also fall within the tain about which path to take since he seems to have
years 1657-64. Ribera’s style had updated Caravaggio’s followed all the main trends of the century. There is a
while representing an alternative to the High Baroque sense that he was restless and that possessing an enor-
and a retreat into a world of interiority. Of course behind mous talent in the absence of a master, he was never totally
this conspicuous Riberesque revival by Giordano there satisfied with just one thing and wanted to keep his options
was also the market with patrons, especially Venetians, open. A ferocious appetite for new experiences, the
requesting paintings in the style of Ribera. Re-doing speed at which he worked and the large clientele that fol-
Ribera was different to re-doing Rubens; it meant taking lowed him from the very start all persuaded him to
inspiration from some of his best known works and modi- spread his net wide. In many cases his intention was to
fying them, while at the same time remaining within transform and manipulate what he saw and change it into
close range of the original. This seems to have been the his own manner rather than to adopt a specific style.
expressed wish of his patrons at least it is precisely When exposed to a new theme he was compelled to use
what Giordano did. In his various compositions of The it but he could not do this without introducing some
Flaying of Marsyas, Giordano tried to ennoble originals smart concetto, manipulating and recreating his source in
that were too crude. He changed Ribera’s Lamentations his own way. He obviously believed cultured viewers
into Depositions, introduced action and emphasized ges- would understand and appreciate both his input and his
tures and expressions. All of Giordano’s Philosophers intelligence.The results are paintings such as The Allegory
manifest expressions related to the ideas for which they of Pan, Leda andVenus (formerly The Matthiesen Gallery,
were known, while Ribera’s ( Private Collection,Madrid now National Gallery ofVictoria, Melbourne) which are
[Fig. 1]) are generally facially expressionless. The two often so densely filled with references that they become
examples of Democrates and Heraclites illustrated here problematic for the modern viewer to decipher. On other
[Figs. 1a and b] clearly show this contradistinction -
Democrates often known as the ‘Laughing Philosopher’ 23. Philosopher, Ribera, oil on canvas, 140 x 131 cm, Private
is shown smiling holding a scroll representing his Golden collection, Madrid (published N. Spinosa Ribera, 2006, p. 294,
Sentences while Heraclites is shown as the ‘Weeping A84). Heraclites and Democrates. Luca Giordano circa 1670, in floral
Philosopher’ riven with melancholia. In contrast Ribera’s surrounds by Giuseppe Recco (Naples 1634 - Alicante 1695). Oil
Philosophers are unusually hard to identify on account on canvas each: 71 x 55.9 cm (27.95 x 22.01 ins); London,The
of their recondite demeanor.23 The painterly quality, in Matthiesen Gallery.These pendent character studies contrast the
his mythological and religious paintings alike, is also sub- pessimism of Heraclites’ worldview of the universe as inherently
stantially richer. He reformed and modernised Ribera, and necessarily unstable with the live-for-the-day cheer of
with whom a sense of emulation might have seemed Democrates’ ‘atomic’ theory.The traditionally perceived polarity
more natural than with say Rubens or Poussin, simply between the two philosophers was at least partly based on
because he was closer to him in time and culture. As for misinterpretation of their metaphors, and dates back to Juvenal’s
the baroque paintings, people must have understood his Satires. However, this interpretation became particularly popular
intention for they collected both original Riberas and in 17th Century Italy, Holland and France after the publications of
Giordano’s work in the Ribera manner. Indeed, many the Essays of Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592).While the
collectors must have preferred Giordano’s copies, since similarity of the present works to Giordano’s series of ten
they were valued for the same amount of money as those Riberesque philosopher ‘portraits’ , which scholars date to the
by Ribera himself. 1650’s, might argue in favour of a proximate date, the floral
surrounds by Giuseppe Recco beg a later date of after 1666, when
the artist is first recorded to have had contact with Giordano.
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