Page 43 - Luca Giordano - Liberation of St Peter

Fig. 6. LUCA GIORDANO,The Baptism of Christ,Toledo,Catedral
Primada se Santa Maria, Baptistry.
at the very centre of the painting.The contours and shad-
ing are the bare essentials, but the painter seems to have
understood the importance of the expressions.The draw-
ing was probably done in 1650-51, the date of his first
trip to Rome. After the Stanza della Segnatura we have
another drawing, Fortitude, also offered for sale recently
[Fig. 4],29 in which the plump forms of women and putti
are underlined with insisted contour. Even if, unfortu-
nately, part of the outline and high light in white appears
lost, the monumentality of the original is respected and
the putti have the grace of the original. After the Stanza
d’Eliodoro we have The Dream of Jacob (British Museum,
London [Fig. 5]), understandably believed to be by Raphael
and the most interesting drawing of the series. Here we
have the complete representation of the fresco, with the
background sketched with elegant, abbreviated lines and
the main figures fully sculpted with great energy.30 Lastly,
after the Logge we have the unfinished Baptism of Christ,
(recently discovered at the Musée de Nancy),31 which
also appears to belong, like the previous sheets, to the
more mature crop of drawings executed around 1654.
Giordano kept this last composition in mind and repli-
cated it in a fresco of the same subject painted for S. Maria
La Nova in 1655. Also, probably around 1655 he used it
for a panel painting of The Baptism of Christ (now in the
Baptistery of the Catedral Primada Santa Maria de Toledo
[Fig. 6]), which is identical in composition to the fresco.
Giordano completed his survey of the Raphaelesque
works in theVatican when he copied The Battle of Constantine
twelve times - none of these drawings survive, but his
first dated work, The Battle of Maxentius signed and dated
1651 and recently on the market, is an obvious derivation
from it.
When we move from drawings to paintings inspired by
Raphael we leap into a different territory of works of a
much greater beauty. The Baptism of Christ (Catedral Pri-
mada Santa Maria de Toledo) is justly considered a major
accomplishment, even when it was believed to be a
forgery. In symmetry, simplicity of composition, grace
of movement and gesture, it is a marvelous poetic fantasy.
The draperies have the straight and angular quality of the
Raphael that inspired it, but the soft volumes are typical
of Giordano’s early work.The dense atmosphere and shadows
also indicate an admiration for Sebastiano del Piombo,
and the warm tonalities, in general, show an appreciation
for the Venetian Renaissance. Equally remarkable is The
Holy Family with St John (Museo del Prado, Madrid formerly
27. B. De Dominici, Vite dei Pittori, Scultori ed Architetti Napoletani, 3
vol.s, 1742-1745, III, p. 396: ‘Raccontava aver disegnato più, e più
volte le logge, e le stanze dipinte da Raffaello, e ben dodici volte l’intera
battaglia di Costantino dipinta dall’eccellente Giulio Romano...’
28. Sold Old Master Drawings, Christie’s London South Kensington
17.12.98 n. 60.
29. Sold Old master Drawings, Christie’s London South Kensington
17.12.98 n. 57.
30. The three drawings are listed in O. Ferrari, G. Scavizzi, Luca
Giordano, L’opera completa, Naples 1992 (n. D6) and Idd., Luca
Giordano 2003, quoted above (nn. D021, D019)
31. Splendeurs baroques de Naples. Dessins des XVIIe et XVIII siècles, catalogue
of the exhibition, Poitiers 2006, n. 47 pp. 112f.
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