Luca Giordano Baroque Masterpieces Shown at Palazzo Medici Riccardi

A major exhibition at Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence presents around fifty works by Luca Giordano (Naples, 1634–1705), including ten preparatory sketches from the National Gallery in London and loans from the Uffizi, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo di Siena, Museo Stibbert, and Museo di Palazzo Mansi. The show highlights Giordano's Florentine period (1681–1685), when he frescoed the Galleria degli Specchi and Biblioteca Riccardiana for Marquis Francesco Riccardi. Known as "Luca Fapresto" for his speed, Giordano blended Caravaggio's naturalism with Venetian colorism from Correggio and Veronese. The exhibition also features documents from Florentine archives and extends to other city museums holding his works, such as Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Corsini, and Santa Maria del Carmine. Giordano's religious and mythological paintings, influenced by Bernini and Jusepe de Ribera, are on view, with pieces from private European and US collections. The artist's brief but intense Florentine stay revived the city's cultural splendor.