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Lot Essay
In this vast canvas Luca Giordano depicts the dramatic moment when the wedding feast of Perseus and Andromeda is interrupted by Phineas, who had previously been betrothed to the bride. Heavily outnumbered by the violent intruders, Perseus seizes the severed head of Medusa, the gorgon he had recently slain, and holds it aloft. Though Perseus averts his own gaze, Phineas and his followers unwittingly look into the eyes of the gorgon and reel backward as they are immediately turned to stone.
When this painting was first published in 1966, Oreste Ferrari and Giuseppe Scavizzi tentatively linked it to a work of the same subject recorded in Genoa, Palazzo Balbi, by Charles Nicolas Cochin in 1769 and by Giuseppe Ratti in 1780 (loc. cit.; C.M. Cochin, Voyage d’Italie, Paris, 1769, III, pp. 270-272 ; C.G. Ratti, Istruzione di quanto può vedersi di più bello in Genova in pittura, scultura ed architettura, Genoa, 1780, I, pp. 195-197, 205). Two further paintings by Giordano were described in the same collection; a Rape of the Sabine Women and a Death of Jezebel (Ferrari and Scavizzi, ibid.). The Balbi Perseus and Phineas was described by Ratti as ‘un grande dipinto, e del maggiore effetto di chiaroscuro’ (‘a large painting, and of great chiaroscuro effect’; ibid.) which does correspond with the present, large-scale painting, with its richly luminous effects and dense shadow. In 1980, however, a canvas of the same subject by Giordano, along with its pendant depicting the Death of Jezebel, appeared at auction and was later acquired by the National Gallery, London (fig. 1). The Death of Jezebel, which was sold separately, is now in the Galleria Nazionale, Cosenza. Both canvases are now definitively identified as those cited by Cochin and Ratti as hanging in the Balbi collection in the eighteenth century.
On the occasion of the present painting's exhibition at the National Gallery alongside the museum's newly acquired Perseus in 1985, Michael Helston proposed that it was a large-scale sketch, done in preparation for the London painting (loc. cit.). In their 1992 monograph, however, Ferrari and Scavizzi refuted Helston’s hypothesis (loc. cit.). Though Giordano’s rapid, frenetic brushwork might appear sketch-like in quality, the painting’s impressive scale and overall high finish both seem to indicate that it was intended to be an independent work, rather than a preparatory study. It was, in fact, precisely this speed and bravura in execution that famously earned Luca Giordano the moniker ‘Fa Presto’ (‘does it quickly’).
When this painting was first published in 1966, Oreste Ferrari and Giuseppe Scavizzi tentatively linked it to a work of the same subject recorded in Genoa, Palazzo Balbi, by Charles Nicolas Cochin in 1769 and by Giuseppe Ratti in 1780 (loc. cit.; C.M. Cochin, Voyage d’Italie, Paris, 1769, III, pp. 270-272 ; C.G. Ratti, Istruzione di quanto può vedersi di più bello in Genova in pittura, scultura ed architettura, Genoa, 1780, I, pp. 195-197, 205). Two further paintings by Giordano were described in the same collection; a Rape of the Sabine Women and a Death of Jezebel (Ferrari and Scavizzi, ibid.). The Balbi Perseus and Phineas was described by Ratti as ‘un grande dipinto, e del maggiore effetto di chiaroscuro’ (‘a large painting, and of great chiaroscuro effect’; ibid.) which does correspond with the present, large-scale painting, with its richly luminous effects and dense shadow. In 1980, however, a canvas of the same subject by Giordano, along with its pendant depicting the Death of Jezebel, appeared at auction and was later acquired by the National Gallery, London (fig. 1). The Death of Jezebel, which was sold separately, is now in the Galleria Nazionale, Cosenza. Both canvases are now definitively identified as those cited by Cochin and Ratti as hanging in the Balbi collection in the eighteenth century.
On the occasion of the present painting's exhibition at the National Gallery alongside the museum's newly acquired Perseus in 1985, Michael Helston proposed that it was a large-scale sketch, done in preparation for the London painting (loc. cit.). In their 1992 monograph, however, Ferrari and Scavizzi refuted Helston’s hypothesis (loc. cit.). Though Giordano’s rapid, frenetic brushwork might appear sketch-like in quality, the painting’s impressive scale and overall high finish both seem to indicate that it was intended to be an independent work, rather than a preparatory study. It was, in fact, precisely this speed and bravura in execution that famously earned Luca Giordano the moniker ‘Fa Presto’ (‘does it quickly’).