Page 45 - Luca Giordano - Liberation of St Peter
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Toledo dates the latter painting to 1655 too.36 The three asleep on the right while on the left they are waking and
paintings are very similar to one another as they reflect moving (just as they are in the Vatican fresco) and the
Luca’s youthful enthusiasm for the classic and especially soldier on the extreme left has a gesture very similar to
Renaissance masters. We believe that they should all be that of the corresponding figure in Raphael’s picture.
ascribed the same date. Later ‘Raphaelesque’ pictures
(such as The Holy Family in the Museo del Prado, Madrid Raphael’s angel is distinguished by bright golden
[Inv. P169]) are very different and more explicitly Gior- colours and encapsulated by the halo of light. Giordano’s
danesque.The three paintings mentioned above may also angel is painted in tones of pink and a halo of light, but
be associated with the specific historical climate of Rome there are also differences (see p.45). Giordano’s angel
in the 1650s, when Giordano may have become aware of levitates, emphasized by the shadow cast on the ground
the revival of Raphael that characterized the work of by his foot, whereas Raphael’s angel walks with Peter and
Poussin at this time.37 He may also have been aware of a resembles him physically. Even more clearly than in the
similar, contemporary revival of Venetian art evident in Vatican fresco, Giordano’s angel appears to belong to an-
the work of Pier Francesco Mola.What attracted Giordano other more ethereal realm. Determined, yet sweet in
to Raphael in the 1650s was the compositional balance, mien, his beauty is masculine and feminine at the same time.
the grace and gentle pathos of the figures, the smooth As with Michelangelo’s Nudes in the Sistine Chapel, his
surfaces and the pure delicate colour. The Liberation can mop of hair - here contrasted with the fine hair of Peter -
be seen to represent a more mature and ambitious ap- symbolises youth and fullness of spirit.The supernatural
proach to another work by the same artist. is expressed not so much by the halo of light as by his poise
and the splendour of the white and pink drapery. It is the
When Raphael painted his fresco depicting The Liber- angel that defines the centre of the composition itself and
ation of St Peter in the Stanza d’Eliodoro [Fig. 2], he closely becomes the quintessence of the divine.This angel could
followed the Acts of the Apostles (12). In the center have figured prominently in the exhibition of Neapolitan
St.Peter is seen in prison, sleeping between two soldiers art atYale in 1987 entitled A Taste for Angels!
and bound with two chains, while the keeper and four
groups of soldiers are seen outside.The angel appears be- In the lower part of Giordano’s painting the soldiers
fore Peter radiating light. He smites and raises him and are shown in a style we might term as ‘Riberesque’, that
to the left Peter is depicted leaving the prison with the is with a realism of traits and earthly colors characterized
angel. The two phases of the story are combined rather by sharp browns and greens. As he reformed Raphael’s
incongruously. Raphael, undoubtedly attracted by the angel, Giordano also reformed the Riberesque style of
possibility of the effect of light in a nocturnal setting, the soldiers by enlivening them with the glint of gleaming
devoted the whole left part of the fresco to the first scene iron and soft modeling. He unified the lower section with
with soldiers awakened by the light of the angel. He rele- the rest of the painting by harmonizing the colours and
gated the second part of the story to the right, disjoined rendering the picture’s tonality in a way that totally
from the first part by the architectural setting. Giordano, differs from his prototypes in Ribera’s art.
who did not feel constrained by the text, unified and sim-
plified the composition.The liberation has already taken 36. G. De Vito, ‘L’avvio di Luca Giordano fra talento e creatività’, in
place. There is one single source of light. Figures move Ricerche sul ‘600 napoletano, 2003-204, p. 172.
from the right towards the exit on the left. But like
Raphael, Giordano depicts the soldiers as still being 37. D. De Grazia, ‘Poussin’s Holy Family on the Steps in Context’, in
Cleveland Studies in the History of Art, 4 (1999), pp. 26-63.
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