Giordano’s creative composition includes two separate episodes related to Mary’s miraculous conception of Christ. On the left Mary kneels below a vision of God and the Holy Spirit, a representation (with the implied presence of Christ in her womb) of the Holy Trinity. On the right Joseph sleeps in his carpentry shop as an angel appears to him in a dream to explain the conception. Giordano went to Spain in 1692 at the invitation of King Charles II. The flood of pale, golden light and the use of luminous pastel tones seen here are hallmarks of Giordano’s late style and were enormously influential in Spain, where he worked for ten years.
Private collection, England.{1}
Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. [1909-1988], New York;{2}
(Thos. Agnew & Sons, London), by 1971;
Purchased by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, now the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, in 1977 (77.52).
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{1} See sale catalogue Old Masters—Recent Acquisitions, 2 November - 10 December 1971, Thos. Agnew & Sons, London, catalogue no. 13.
{2} See Bertina Suida Manning, 1550-1650: Century of Masters from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Fort Worth, Texas, 1962, catalogue no. 28.
