(Naples 1634–1705)
The Abduction of Proserpina,
oil on canvas, 130 x 180 cm, framed

Provenance:
(possibly) Casa Ranuzzi, Bologna, 1769;
Aristocratic European collection, since at least the end of the 18th Century

Exhibited:
London, Robilant+Voena, The Gentileschi Effect, 30 November 2018 – 15 February 2019 (as Luca Giordano)

Literature:
(possibly) M. Oretti, Le pitture che si vedono nelle case e Palazzi de Nobili della città di Bologna, 1769, p. 75

We are grateful to Nicola Spinosa for confirming the attribution after examination of the present painting in the original.

We are grateful to Giuseppe Scavizzi for independently confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph.

The present painting has been dated to circa 1688–1690, a work of Luca Giordano’s maturity. In 1769 Marcello Oretti mentions paintings by Luca Giordano in Casa Ranuzzi, including one, representing the Abduction of Proserpina (see literature).

The subject of the present painting is taken from the Metamorphoses of Ovid (V: 341–437). It depicts a theme Luca Giordano had executed in the ceiling frescos of the gallery of Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence (1683–1685) and he returned to the subject again in a painting on canvas conserved in the Casita del Príncipe, San Lorenzo de El Escorial (136 x 155 cm). The latter belonged to a cycle of canvases representing mythological subjects, created between 1687 and 1689 for the Palacio del Buen Retiro in Madrid, and now divided between the Casita and various Spanish diplomatic seats. The group of Poseidon and Proserpine is almost identical to that in the present painting, while the gilded chariot, in which the divinities are carried, differs: the chariot in the Casita painting rides over the sea, while that in the present work is drawn by a pair of horses through clouds in the sky.

Luca Giordano dominated Neapolitan art production during the second half of the seventeenth century. He trained in Naples where he studied the works of Ribera and Lanfranco; during the course of his travels north through Italy, he was influenced by Pietro da Cortona from whom he assimilated a lighter palette and a greater freedom of touch. His prolific and swift manner of working enabled him to earn the epithet ‘fa presto’. As well as working in his native city, Naples, he also worked in Florence and Venice where he particularly studied Veronese, and where he painted two important altarpieces for Santa Maria della Salute. From 1692 to 1702 Luca Giordano resided in Madrid where he was celebrated as court painter to the Spanish crown. The great decorative projects he realised there for Charles II, played an important role in the development of Spanish painting. Luca Giordano’s animated compositions and refined handling of scenic effects exemplify key aspects of the Baroque, and set the stage for the development of eighteenth century Neapolitan painting.