Lot Essay
We are grateful to Professor Nicola Spinosa for advancing the attribution to Giordano on the basis of photographs. He dates the work to the artist's mature period, from circa 1680-2, when he was working in Florence, painting for a number of patrons including the Corsini, for whom he executed the fresco The Glory of St. Andrea Corsini in the small dome of their Chapel in S. Maria del Carmine.
Before he arrived in Florence, Giordano visited Rome, where he was struck as much by the Classicism of both Pietro da Cortona and Raphael as by the Baroque splendour of Battista Gaulli's frescoes in the church of Il Gesù. In small devotional works such as the present picture, Girodano moved away from the influence of his early master Ribera, to produce works of great subtlety and tenderness. This Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist is similar in style and tone to the Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist in the Museé Fabre, Montpellier (datable to circa 1685). Indeed this was a popular theme for Giordano in his later years, and the present work exists in several versions, many of which and possibly the present work, are no doubt painted with the help of his studio.
Before he arrived in Florence, Giordano visited Rome, where he was struck as much by the Classicism of both Pietro da Cortona and Raphael as by the Baroque splendour of Battista Gaulli's frescoes in the church of Il Gesù. In small devotional works such as the present picture, Girodano moved away from the influence of his early master Ribera, to produce works of great subtlety and tenderness. This Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist is similar in style and tone to the Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist in the Museé Fabre, Montpellier (datable to circa 1685). Indeed this was a popular theme for Giordano in his later years, and the present work exists in several versions, many of which and possibly the present work, are no doubt painted with the help of his studio.