A Miraculous Healing by St. Anthony of Padua (recto) Same drawing in reverse (verso)

Description

Luca Giordano was one of the greatest artists of the Baroque period in Naples. He produced an enormous number of religious and secular paintings as well as fresco cycles in palaces and churches. An artist of international stature, he worked in Naples, Venice, Florence, and Madrid, creating dramatic compositions full of color and light.

This drawing comes from late in Giordano’s career, during his sojourn in Madrid from 1692 to 1700. During the last few years of his stay he frescoed the choir of S. Antonio de los Portugueses with scenes from the Life of St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231). This saint was born in Lisbon, Portugal and died in Padua, and became the patron saint of that north Italian city. A Franciscan monk, he performed many miracles including reattaching the severed leg of a young man. The Museum’s drawing shows the climactic moment of healing, and is typical of Giordano’s late compositional studies, which work out the artist’s ideas using simplified shapes which convey a story through figural poses and gestures
Gallery label text by Annette Dixon, Curator