Madonna and Child with Souls in Purgatory

Public Domain

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Artist Luca Giordano (Italian (Neapolitan), 1634–1705)Italian (Neapolitan), 1634–1705

CultureItalian

Titles

Madonna and Child with Souls in Purgatory

Datec. 1665

PlaceNaples, Italy

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsCanvas: 81 5/8 × 61 1/4 in. (207.3 × 155.6 cm)
Frame: 88 7/8 × 69 in. (225.8 × 175.3 cm)

Credit LineSarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston

Object numberBF.2004.1

Not on view

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Department

Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation

Object Type

PAINTING

Description

The Virgin Mary, clad in a red robe and blue mantle, holds the Christ Child and hovers on a bank of clouds over a group of souls in purgatory, who seek her intercession for their release. Nearby, a putto holds a brown scapular, a Carmelite symbol of devotion to Mary.

Over the course of a long career, Luca Giordano painted thousands of pictures and earned the nickname Luca fa presto (Luca works fast). Sometimes accused of painting too fast, Giordano acknowledged that he used “three sorts of brushes, one of gold, one of silver, and one of copper,” a metaphor for three levels of quality and price.

ProvenancePossibly Marchese Agostino Fonseca, Venice, by 1681; Fürsten zu Putbus, Schloss Putbus, Rügen, Germany, since c. 1800; confiscated by the East German regime and deposited in 1962 first at the East Berlin Nationalgalerie, later in storage of the Gemäldegalerie in the Bode Museum, until 1997; transferred to the new unified Gemäldegalerie; restituted to the Prince of Putbus; [his sale, Christie's, London, December 11, 2002, lot 99]; [Jack Kilgore and Co., Inc., New York]; purchased by the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, 2004

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Signed lower center: L. Giordano. F.

Catalogue raisonnéO. Ferrari & G. Scavizzi, "Luca Giordano: l'opera completa", Naples, 1992, no. A179.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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