Luca Giordano

This previously unpublished canvas can be compared to Giordano's mythologically themed cycle of paintings, which included a work of the same subject, executed between 1687 and 1689 and destined for a distinguished Spanish patron.  The cycle of at least 12 paintings was sent from Naples to Madrid, and the other version of Apollo and Daphne today remains part of the Spanish Patrimonio Nacional.  A drawing with a similar grouping of figures, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 9631), was traditionally considered to be a preparatory sketch for the Spanish Apollo and Daphne, however the composition is in fact closer to the present painting.