Luca Giordano, called Fa Presto

With Jean-Pierre Selz, Paris; acquired 1988

Gainesville, et al., 1991-93, no. 22

Giuseppe Scavizzi, 'New Drawings by Luca Giordano', Master Drawings,  XXXVII, no. 2 (Summer 1999), p. 136, no. 46;
idem, 'Giordano Disegnatore' in Luca Giordano, exhibition catalogue, Naples, Capodimonte, et al., 2001-02, p. 367;
O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano, Nuove ricerche e inediti, Naples 2003, p. 112, no. D091, reproduced p. 229

Laid down. Some small creases at both sides, some wear at top. Tiny losses at the centre of the bottom edge. Otherwise condition is fine.
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This drawing is related to Giordano's signed and dated altarpiece of 1677, painted for S. Maria del Carmine, Ascoli Piceno, and now in that city's Pinacoteca Civica. The subject is taken from the apocryphal Book of St. Joseph and follows the description in that text, with the unusual addition of Saint Michael, who was presumably included at the request of the patron.

The drawing corresponds closely to the painting, except for the omission of some putti and clouds to the left, and of the figure next to the Virgin. In the Horvitz exhibition catalogue, Linda Wolk-Simon suggested that this might be Giordano's ricordo of a work he was unlikely to see again. Despite having written in 1999 that he considered it to be a preparatory study, Scavizzi subsequently came to agree with Wolk-Simon's conclusion, and noted in his succeeding publications that this drawing is characteristic of the highly finished ricordi of his own paintings that the artist seems to have made, beginning in the early 1660s.¹  There are many extant works by Giordano in this technique, some of them studies for paintings and others copies of works by other artists. They are strong, attractive drawings and are as important a component of his oeuvre as his freer pen and ink studies.

1. O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, op. cit., 2003, p. 111