Luca Giordano - Solomon's Idolatry - image-1

Lot 2063 Dα

Luca Giordano - Solomon's Idolatry

Auction 1175 - overview Cologne
05.06.2021, 11:00 - Paintings and Drawings 15th to 19th C.
Estimate: 35.000 € - 45.000 €
Result: 33.750 € (incl. premium)

Luca Giordano

Solomon's Idolatry

Oil on canvas (relined). 169 x 187 cm.

The attribution to Luca Giordano has been endorsed by Professor Nicola Spinosa in a written communication to the owner (Naples, 6th September 2019), of which a copy is available.

The Old Testament tale of Solomon's idolatry is a comparatively rare iconographic motif. According to the story, King Solomon, known for his wisdom and great wealth, was drawn in his later years to pagan cults, which were thought to have been introduced into Israel by the women from neighbouring kingdoms who joined his large harem. Giordano depicts the King, accompanied by wives and concubines, adoring a pagan statue.

Luca Giordano was born in Naples and trained in the same city. At the beginning of his career, his works were heavily influenced by those of José de Ribera, whose compositions he often copied. However, he later travelled to Rome, Florence and Venice in the early 1650s, and there studied the great masters of the Venetian Cinquecento, above all Titian and Veronese, as well as the Baroque innovations of Pietro da Cortona. The painter thus transitioned from Tenebrism to Neovenetian influence and then toward a new Baroque style, becoming increasingly sought after internationally and counting among his patrons the Spanish Viceroy in Naples, the Florentine Medici and various Tuscan and Venetian families. He spent the last years of his life in Madrid, working for the Royal Court.

Professor Spinosa underlines strong similarities between the present canvas and works dating from 1557 to 1660 - including “Saint Michael Fighting against Rebel Demons” in the Chiesa del´Annunciazione in Chiaia, “The Martyrdom of Saint Lucia” now in the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, or “Rubens depicting an Allegory of Peace” in the Museuo Nacional del Prado. He therefore dates the work to the end of the sixth decade of the 17th century, after Giordano's return to Naples.

Certificate

Nicola Spinosa, 16.02.2019.

Provenance

Italian private collection.