Luca Giordano, called Fa Presto

G. Scavizzi, "Note giordanesche", in Ricerche sul '600 napoletano. Saggi e documenti 2000, Naples 2001, p. 149, reproduced on p. 151, fig. 2;
G. Scavizzi, in O. Ferrari & G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano. Nuove ricerche e inediti, Naples 2003, p. 98, cat. no. A0327, reproduced on p. 100, fig. A0327.

The painting is less red than the catalogue illustration suggests. This large canvas has quite an old relining which has resulted in the canvas weave being discernible on the recto, though the impasto and brushwork are still well preserved. A wooden slip has been added along the edges to fit the frame. The paintign appears not to have been cleaned for quite some time and is under a yeelowed varnish. Dsicoloured retouchings can ba made out in the right breast, in the suckling child, in the female figure's knee, in the background above the bottom of the child at right. Small acattered losses can ba made out, as well as small areas od damage upper right and left. Some frame abrasion is present upper left. In the darker tones the paint has become a little sunken, for example in the darker passages of the background. The retouchings have been applied clumsily and the overall appearance of the painting could be much improved after cleaning and a new more delicate resorative campaign. Inspection with UV light does not add further information on the overall condition of the work. Offered in a wood and plaster frame with some losses.
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The theme of Christian Charity is rare in Giordano's oeuvre - only two other examples are known - and this representation, with Charity or 'Caritas' lying beside a fountain in an extensive landscape, is unique in its iconography.¹  Giordano has not adhered to the traditional representation of Charity for he has included other symbols indicating that she may be Fertility, as indeed the child suckling at her breast also suggests. She is shown holding a pomegranate, a symbol of fertility since antiquity, and the fountain beside her symbolises life renewing itself, as indeed does the landscape beyond.

The figure of Caritas herself is closely related to that of Venus in Giordano's Mars, Venus and Vulcan in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and in its variant (possibly a bozzetto) in a Florentine private collection.²  Caritas is shown half-dressed, with one of the three putti suckling at her breast, whilst Venus is shown almost entirely naked. Both figures lie languidly back, right leg extended and left arm raised, thus creating an interesting semi-reclined contrapposto pose. Both turn their heads sharply to the left; Caritas to a putto calling to her for attention, and Venus to Mars who is doing the same. It is reasonable to assume that the paintings were executed around the same time, that is around 1670, though there are many differences between them. Whilst Mars and Venus are set inside a dark fiery interior, Caritas is shown in an airy landscape with an ornamental fountain. The influence of Pietro da Cortona, whose works Giordano studied and admired whilst in Rome in the 1650s but whose influence he felt throughout his entire career, is particularly evident here. The sky and landscape, in particular, are inspired by Cortona's grand classicising manner.

When he first published the painting in 2001, Giuseppe Scavizzi suggested a possible dating of 1702-4 but admitted that without comparable pictures of this date such a dating had to remain conjectural.


1.  For Giordano's other two treatments of the subject see the painting with Walpole Gallery, London (reproduced in colour in N. Spinosa, in Luca Giordano 1634-1705, exhibition catalogue, Naples, Castel Sant'Elmo - Museo di Capodimonte, 3 March - 3 June 2001, pp. 178-79, cat. no. 49) and that owned by Leopoldo de' Medici at Palazzo Pitti, later transferred to the Uffizi in Florence (reproduced in O. Ferrari & G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano. L'opera completa, Naples 1992, p. 565, fig. 271).
2.  O. Ferrari & G. Scavizzi, op. cit., vol. I, p. 290, cat. nos. A237 and A238, both reproduced vol. II, figs. 313 and 314.