LOT DETAILS

Materials:

oil on canvas, with an arched top

Size Notes:

canvas: 70½ by 36 in.; 179.1 by 91.4 cm.

Description:

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Condition:

framed: 79¼ by 45 in.; 201.3 by 114.3 cm. The canvas is lined and is stable and taut on its stretcher. The image reads well beneath the varnish, although some areas of shadow and darker pigment have “sunk? and create more of a flat/two-dimensional appearance than intended. An area of prior retouching is visible in raking light at the center below the cherub heads. Under UV inspection, much of the varnish is milky but retouching is visible at the aforementioned area below the cherubs, around the edges of the canvas in response to frame abrasion, as well as around darker outlines such as around Jesus’s hand and chin, around the leftmost male figure’s chin, and scattered in dark areas of the background at the top and sides. The painting would likely improve with a fresh varnish to heighten the contrast of the darks. Offered in a decoratively carved giltwood frame with arched top.

Literature:

O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano, L'opera completa, Naples 1992, p. 279, under cat. no. A180.

Provenance:

Madame la Comtesse Koucheleff, St. Petersburg; Her sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 18 - 19 March 1875, lot 14; Anonymous sale, Hôtel Drouot, 11 - 18 November 1912; Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 14 March 1980, lot 93; There acquired.