(Naples 1634–1705)
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine,
oil on canvas, 85 x 125.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Bari;
where acquired by the present owner, circa 2000

We are grateful to Stefano Causa for confirming the attribution of the present painting and for his help in cataloguing. We are also grateful to Giuseppe Scavizzi for independently confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph. He dates the painting to circa 1670.

The present painting is executed on the small scale typical of easel paintings and was therefore intended for a private patron. The sacred subject is interpreted as a family reunion. The intimate scene, played out in a range of shades of ochre and red is set in a large dark room, lit from the left so as to bring a sparkle to Saint Catherine’s earrings and ornately arranged hair.

This work belongs to Luca Giordano’s early maturity – a phase often described as influenced by Ribera when his works are darker in tone – and is datable to the 1670s, soon after his Florentine sojourn. Indeed, the painting can be placed a little before the fresco cycle for the choir of the church of San Gregorio Armeno, Naples, dated to 1679-1681 where in the scene representing Saint Benedict leaving his family Giordano represents various women with lineaments that resemble those of Saint Catherine in the present work (see O. Ferrari, G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano. L’opera completa, Naples 1992, p. 294, cat. no. A265).

Further comparisons can be made with the Holy Family with Saint Catherine of Alexandria of circa 1675 in the Glasgow Museums Research Centre (inv. no. 1056) and with the central group of the large altarpiece depicting the Holy Family with Saint Anthony of Padua now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan (inv. no. 446). A Red chalk drawing at Holkam Hall demonstrates the creative wealth of this composition in Luca Giordano’s production (see A. E. Popham, C. Lloyd, Old Master drawings at Holkam Hall, Chicago 1986, p. 66).

Luca Giordano was a prolific and internationally admired Neapolitan painter, who followed in the wake of the example of his first master, Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652). On a visit to Rome in about 1652, however, he experienced the more richly colourful work of Pietro da Cortona and Rubens, prompting him to develop the light and festive palette of his maturity.

Visits to Florence and Venice followed in 1665, during which Giordano began to acquire an international network of patrons who continued to employ him at long range from his base in Naples. His enormous reputation as a decorator reached a climax in 1692 with an invitation from Charles II of Spain to Madrid, where he stayed for ten years, returning to Naples for the still highly productive final three years of his life.