(Naples 1634–1705)
Heraclitus,
oil on canvas, 128 x 102 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Giuseppe Scavizzi for confirming the attribution to Luca Giordano on the basis of a photograph.

This figure, painted by Luca Giordano, can be identified as the philosopher Heraclitus. It belongs to a series of canvases executed by the Neapolitan painter on the theme of philosophers in the wake of those by Ribera (see G. Scavizzi, G. De Vito, Luca Giordano giovane 1650–1664, Naples 2012, pp. 104–110; P. Stépanoff, Philosophes: Luca Giordano entre cynisme et stoïcisime, in: Luca Giordano (1634–1705). Le triomphe de la peinture napolitaine, ed. by S. Causa, exhibition catalogue, Paris 2019, pp. 179–185; S. Causa, Luca Giordano dalla natura alla pittura, Milan 2020, pp. 177–178, figs. 37–39). The Greek philosopher is represented half-length, he is dressed as a mendicant and holds his arms crossed. He has a pained expression on his face, somewhere between a smirk and a tearful grimace. In the stark dark setting of the room, various objects emerge in the foreground: a book on the spine of which can be read the partially legible inscription ‘RCM…’, a roll of parchment and an hourglass.

This work can be dated to the 1650s, the same decade in which Luca Giordano produced his first cycle of philosopher paintings.

Luca Giordano was one of the most important exponents of Neapolitan painting in the second half of the seventeenth century. His sense of realism derives from Ribera and he served a long apprenticeship in the Spanish painter’s Neapolitan studio. During his successful and prolific career, Luca Giordano gradually moved away from the style of Ribera to incorporate an eclectic range of artistic influences which he integrated into his art production with a distinctive, singular style.