Luca Giordano

Anonymous sale, Zurich, Koller Auktion, 21 September 2001, lot 3061 (as follower of Giordano). 

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's.This work has not been recently cleaned or varnished. It is quite dull, but the condition is extremely good. The reverse shows an Italian paste lining. There is a patch applied in the center of the work, where there seems to be a loss beneath the group of putti surrounding the globe beneath the Madonna. There may be some darkened retouches in the lower left of the brown spandrel, but the condition is remarkably good throughout the remainder of the work. There is no reason why the work should not be cleaned, although the yellowed varnish is certainly attractive.
"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."

This beautifully preserved and unlined bozzetto is a prepatory sketch for Giordano's fresco in the church of the Oratorio del Monte dei Poveri in Naples (see fig. 1), for which the artist was paid on 25 October 1672.¹ An altarpiece on canvas by Giordano is also in the Oratorio and was painted immediately after the fresco.

Since the fresco is in very poor condition this bozzetto, among Giordano's best from this mature phase, is all the more important for it is the last surviving record of the sprited composition. Painted with Giordano's typically energetic and quick brushtrokes, the canvas is of a larger size and is more finished than many of his other sketches, suggesting it may have been the very final preparatory work which he may have shown directly to his patrons for approval before beginning work on the fresco. Due to the fresco's unsatisfactory condition it is not easy to analyse comprehensively what changes Giordano may have made in the final execution though it does appear that the bearded figure lower right in the present work may have been omitted in the fresco. The shape of the painted section of the canvas corresponds almost identically with the shape of the fresco.

We are grateful to Professor Giuseppe Scavizzi for endorsing the attribution on the basis of images.

1. For the fresco see G. Scavizzi and O. Ferrari, Luca Giordano, Naples 1992, vol. I, p. 287, cat. no. A221a, reproduced vol. II, fig. 292.