Giordano, Luca
Giordano, Luca
Neapolitan painter; b. at Naples, 1632; d. in the same place, 12 Jan., 1705. He was esteemed the marvel of his age for the rapidity with which he covered with frescoes vast ceilings, domes and walls in Italy and Spain, and was known as Luca “Fa Presto” (make haste), as the demand for his work was so great that his father was continually urging him to greater dispatch, until at length he was able to work with extraordinary speed. He was undoubtedly the chief of the Machinisti, as the popular quick-painting decorators of Italy came to be called, and perhaps no other painter has left so many picture. He was a pupil of Ribera, and then of Pietro da Cortona, and a constant copyist of the works of Raphael. Some of his earliest paintings were for the churches of Naples, but in 1679 he was invited to Florence, and in 1692 to Madrid, where he painted the immense ceiling and stairecase of the Escorial, and an enormous number of Spain to Naples, and there he spent the last three years of his life. There are sixty of his pictures in Madrid, and about half that number in Naples, while the valleries of Dresden, Munich, Paris, Vienna, Rome, works. He executed several etchings, and is believed to have also worked in pastel.
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GEORGE CHARLES WILLIAMSON Transcribed by Joseph P. Thomas
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VICopyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Giordano, Luca
(called Fa Presto), an eminent Italian painter, was born at Naples in 1632, and was instructed in the school of Gituseppe Ribera. He spent some time at Rome, where he improved rapidly. There is a picture by him in the palace at Madrid, representing The Nativity, which, from its excellence, is often taken for a production of Raphael. In 1692 he was appointed painter to the king of Spain. He executed the sacristy of the cathedral at Toledo; the vault of the royal chapel at Madrid. In 1702 he went to Naples, where he had so many commissions that he could scarcely fulfill them. He painted an altar-piece in the Church of the Ascension, at Naples, which is considered one of his best works. Probably no artist ever produced as many pictures as he did. He died at Naples, Jan. 12, 1705. The following are some of his excellent productions: Elijah calling Fire from Heaven; The Virgin and Infant Jesus; St. Joseph and St. John; Malgdalene Penitent; The Adulteress before Christ; Christ Disputing with the Doctors; St. Anne Received into Heaven by the Virgin. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v; Spooner, Biog. Hist. of the Fine Arts, s.v.