Luca Giordano, called Fa Presto Naples 1634 - 1705

Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Gentleman"), London, Christie's, 9 December 1994, lot 370.

The present lot is very closely related to the head of Marsyas in three of Giordano's finished works of Apollo and Marsyas, all of which are in Naples, two in private collections, and the other in the Museo Nazionale di San Martino (see O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano, Naples 1992, vol. I, pp. 269-70, cat. nos.  A128, A129, A130, reproduced p. 32 colour plates XV, XVI; vol. II, reproduced pp. 533, 535, figs. 205-6, 208).  Along with the finished works, the present lot may be dated to the late 1650s when Giordano's paintings were greatly affected by the work of Jusepe de Ribera.