Lot 197
  • 197

Luca Giordano, called Fa Presto

Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Luca Giordano, called Fa Presto
  • Saint Michael defeating Satan
  • oil on canvas, unlined

Provenance

Until very recently in the collection of a Spanish noble family since the 18th century, according to the present owner. 

Condition

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The unlined canvas has reinforced tacking edges; there is a vertical seam to the right hand side and a horizontal stretcher mark which shows vulnerability. The paint is raised and unstable and there are repaired edges. Significant restoration can be seen through the bodies of the demons and the shadow of St. Michael's left wing, some of this is excessive and crude. Additional minor restorations are scattered across the surface. Generally, in a good preserved condition with strong colours that saturate well."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Catalogue Note

This is Giordano's modello for the large canvas of the same subject housed today in the Museo Provinciale di Belli Arti, Cadiz.1 Scavizzi and Ferrari published the Cadiz canvas in 1992 as a collaborative work between Giordano and his studio but Prof. Scavizzi, to whom we are grateful, has recently confirmed the present modello to be a fully autograph work by Giordano, citing the robes of St. Michael as particularly fine (private communication on the basis of photographs). Although the commission of both this and the Cadiz version is unrecorded, the present work is likely to have been carried out by Giordano towards the end of his sojourn in Spain, where he lived from 1692-1702. We are further grateful to Prof. Nicola Spinosa for endorsing the attribution to Giordano on the basis of photographs.

Giordano had been summoned to Spain by Charles II and became his court painter in 1694. His achievements while under Charles' patronage include the decoration of the ceiling of the imperial staircase at the Escorial with St Lawrence in Glory, adored by Charles V and Philip II and later he received many important ecclesiastical commissions, not least in 1698 from Toledo Cathedral where he decorated the ceiling of the sacristry. He returned to Naples in 1702 having completed his last public commission in 1700 just before the death of Charles II. For the last two years of his stay in Spain he worked only for private patrons.

1. See O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano, vol. I, Naples 1992, p. 338, no. A547a, reproduced vol. II, p. 760, fig. 692.