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Baroque and Rococo
Luca Giordano
Luca Giordano
(b Naples, 18 Oct 1634; d Naples, 3 Jan 1705).
Italian painter and draughtsman, active also in Spain. He was one of the most celebrated artists of the Neapolitan Baroque, whose vast output included altarpieces, mythological paintings and many decorative fresco cycles in both palaces and churches. He moved away from the dark manner of early 17th-century Neapolitan art as practised by Caravaggio and his followers and Jusepe de Ribera, and, drawing on the ideas of many other artists, above all the 16th-century Venetians and Pietro da Cortona, he introduced a new sense of light and glowing colour, of movement and dramatic action. He was internationally successful and travelled widely, working in Naples, Venice, Florence and Madrid.
The Forge of Vulcan
Oil on canvas
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Venus, Cupid and Mars
Museum of Capodimonte, Naples
