Italian artists in Spain: the case of Luca Giordano

In the Escorial monastery the Neapolitan Luca Giordano, invited in 1692 by King Charles II to assume the position of court painter, gave birth to one of the most impressive artistic achievements promoted in the second half of the seventeenth century. It was almost inevitable he be summoned there, not only because of the close links between Naples and the Spanish Crown, but also because he was the most famous fresco painter in Europe. The chronology of his stay in Spain is confirmed in documents and in style. In the Main staircase (1692 – April 1693) Giordano painted a large fresco that glorified the exploits of Charles V and Philip II, superimposed on a frieze of the Battle of Saint Quentin, an event that had given rise to the construction of the monastery. The figurative program, which extolled the Escorial and the function of the Spanish monarchy in the divine plan, was negotiated in the course of the work, always taking into account the inclination and talent of the artist. He was able to create an appealing style: while his laudatory vein was suited to the exaltation of the monarchy, the frieze showed his taste for battle scenes that he could not express in Naples. In the large vault, conceived as a deep space that extends to infinity, the verticality of the environment transferred the molten fluidity of his sketches. Later, between 1693 and 1694, he painted the vaults of the church of the monastery with stories from the Old and New Testament and scenes from the life of David and Solomon, presented as a prefiguration of Charles V and Philip II. Superb in fluent narrative, the Transit of the Virgin and the Vicissitudes of the Jewish people leave the viewer the impression of an improvisation on a large scale sustained in a single breath. Admiring these frescoes, his follower Antonio Palomino called the master “a father of history with the brush, just as Herodotus was with his pen”. In the following years, and until the return to Naples (1702), the artist produced a large number of cycles with biblical stories, including those of David and Solomon which dominate the Retiro (1695), the two series of the Life of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Vienna (1696-1697) and the frescoes in the vault of the Casón del Retiro (1697), an official meeting place and a ballroom. Here, the king commissioned a whole decoration from Giordano in which the agreement between the Illusionism of Cortona and Venetian naturalism reached insurmountable summits. The most striking elements of his art are, at this stage, the narrative style and strong Illusionism, enriched by knowledge of Velázquez. Some large paintings by the Neapolitan artist, preserved at the Escorial, in the Prado Museum and the Royal Palace of Madrid, are close to great French decoration (Versailles, decorated since 1680), while maintaining a strong bond with tradition and the religious element. The physical presence of Giordano in Madrid, his inventiveness and the extraordinary rapidity of technique, greatly impressed local artists. Although he was difficult to imitate, he was able to renew the Spanish style of the late Baroque, arriving with his influence, up to Goya (image: the  Alegoría del Toisón de Oro, in the Casón del Buen Retiro).

<<<—previous page   next page—>>>