Luca Giordano Circle

Italian school of the 16th century. Circle of LUCA GIORDANO (Naples, 1634 - 1705).
"Christ the Savior".
Oil on copper.
With remains of label on the back.
Measurements: 11,5 x 8,5 cm; 24 x 21 cm (frame).

The author offers us in this copper of evident devotional function a "portrait" of Christ, in this case effigy as Savior. Jesus, with long, curly brown hair and a light beard, is depicted even bust-length, against a neutral, celestial background, leaving no room for landscape or architectural details, so that all the viewer's attention is concentrated on the face. The head, haloed by a nimbus of golden light that widens slightly to evoke the traditional cruciform nimbus, stands firm, and adopts a serene and majestic expression. The absence of traces of pain, as well as of elements such as the crown of thorns, indicates that we are before a portrait of Christ derived from the iconographic tradition of the "Mandylion" of Edessa, rather than before an image derived from the passionate Veronica, perhaps the most common formula in the Spanish Baroque. According to the legend, King Abgar of Edessa (4 B.C. - 50 A.D.), seriously ill, having heard about the thaumaturgic capacity of Jesus, wrote to him asking for his help. Jesus would have answered him with a letter and a portrait of himself which would have had the power to cure him. From this miraculous image, which faithfully conveys the features of Christ in life, derives a long tradition of Eastern and Western iconographic devotional images, including the one we now present.
Luca Giordano, the most outstanding Neapolitan painter of the late 17th century, and one of the main representatives of the late Italian Baroque.Painter and engraver, known in Spain as Lucas Jordán, Giordano enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime, both in his native Italy and in our country. However, after his death his work was often criticized for its speed of execution, opposed to the Greco-Latin aesthetics. It is believed that he was formed in the environment of Ribera, whose style he followed at first. However, he soon traveled to Rome and Venice, where he studied Veronese, whose influence has been felt ever since in his work. This trip was key to the maturation of his style, as well as the influences of other artists such as Mattia Preti, Rubens, Bernini and, above all, Pietro da Cortona. At the end of the 1670s Giordano began his great mural decorations (Montecassino and San Gregorio Armeno in Naples), which were followed from 1682 by other projects, including the mural paintings in the gallery and library of the Palazzo Medici Ricardi in Florence. In 1692 he was called to Madrid to carry out mural works in the monastery of El Escorial, where he worked from 1692 to 1694. Later he also painted the office and bedroom of Charles II in the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, and after these he undertook the paintings of the Casón del Buen Retiro (ca. 1697), the sacristy of the cathedral of Toledo (1698), the royal chapel of the Alcázar and San Antonio de los Portugueses (1699). However, royal commissions ceased with the arrival of Philip V in 1701 and the beginning of the War of Succession, so Giordano returned to Naples in 1702, although from there he continued to send paintings to Spain. Today Giordano's works are kept in the most important art galleries around the world, including the Prado Museum, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Louvre in Paris, the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna, the Metropolitan in New York and the National Gallery in London.