Luca Giordano

Luca Giordano , 1632-1705, Italian decorative painter, b. Naples. He was the pupil of Ribera and Pietro da Cortona. He imitated the works of the great masters with amazing speed and facility and ultimately based his style upon those of Veronese and Cortona. Giordano decorated the cupola of the Corsini Chapel and a ceiling in the Palazzo Riccardi (1682-83), both in Florence. In 1692 he went to Madrid, where he remained ten years and produced numerous works in oil and in fresco, achieving fame and wealth. On the death of his patron Charles II, he accompanied Philip V to Naples. His pictures are in the leading European galleries, particularly those of Madrid, Vienna, and Naples. His best-known frescoes in Naples include The Story of Judith (San Martino) and Christ Expelling the Traders from the Temple (San Filippo Neri). In Spain he painted airy and luminous frescoes in the Chapel of San Lorenzo and in the Escorial , Madrid, and in the churches and palaces of Madrid and Toledo.

Giordano, Luca (b Naples, 18 Oct. 1634; d Naples, 3 Jan. 1705). Neapolitan painter, the most important Italian decorative artist of the second half of the 17th century. He was nicknamed Luca Fa Presto (Luke work quickly) because of his prodigious speed of execution and huge output. His early works were in the tenebrist manner of Ribera, but his style became much more colourful under the influence of such great decorative painters as Veronese, whose works he saw on his extensive travels. Indeed, he absorbed a host of influences and was said to be able to imitate other artists' styles with ease. His work was varied also in subject matter, although he was primarily a religious and mythological painter. In addition to the frescos for which he is principally famed, he produced a large number of easel paintings and was a prolific draughtsman. He worked mainly in Naples, but also extensively in Florence and Venice, and he was widely influential in Italy. In 1692 he was called to Spain by Charles II (see Habsburg) and stayed there for ten years, painting in Madrid, Toledo, and the Escorial. His last works, after his return to Naples, included the decoration of the dome of the Treasury Chapel of the Certosa di S. Martino (1704). He died a very wealthy man and one of the most famous artists in Europe. In his personal self-confidence and courtliness, and in the open, airy compositions and light luminous colours of his work, Giordano presages such great 18th-century painters as Tiepolo.