(Naples 1634–1705)
Rest on the Flight into Egypt with Putti,
oil on canvas, 117 x 160.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
David Goldmann; compulsory sale of the complete inventory and furnishings of Hermann Göring-Platz 14, Vienna IX, 23 August 1939, lot 22, Dorotheum Vienna; Austrian private collection (The auction takes place in agreement with David Goldmann‘s heirs and as the result of a settlement deal.)

We are grateful to Professor Giuseppe Scavizzi for confirming the attribution on the basis of a digital photograph. Luca Giordano repeatedly dealt with the subject of rest on the flight into Egypt, with each version varying in composition and style in accordance with the wishes of the particular commission. In the present work the Christ Child is surrounded by a group of six cherubs at play. Water and vegetation, and the sunset on the left, create a bucolic atmosphere. A similar version with only minimal differences was offered at Sotheby’s London in 1997 (3 December 1997, lot 46) and later published (see Ferrari-Scavizzi, Luca Giordano. Nuove ricerche e inediti, 2003, A0156, p. 73., ill. p. 182). Professor Scavizzi dates both this and the present work to around 1685. A further variation on the subject of the rest on the flight into Egypt was offered at Sotheby’s, New York on 29 January 2013 (Estate of Giancarlo Baroni, lot 9).