Cybele
Luca Giordano (Naples 1632 – Naples 1705)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1687 - 1689
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1257 x 1549 mm (49 1/2 x 61 in)
Place of origin
Naples
Order this imageCollection
Hinton Ampner, Hampshire
NT 1530094
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Cybele by Luca Giordano (Naples 1632 – Naples 1705). A child being suckled, with Bacchanalian figures in a stormy landscape, Jupiter in the clouds above. Cybele, identified by her mural crown and the lioness at her feet, was called 'the Mother of the Gods' or 'Great Mother' and was the goddess of Nature. She supports a suckling child with her right arm, and is helped by cupid to support a globe with her left hand. Jupiter looks down from the sky. She sits in a landscape surrrounded by animals, styrs, and fruits of the earth.The corpse of Chronos?/Saturn? lies in front of her. A variant composition of the one at Zarzuela.
Provenance
Probably Sotheby's, 23rd February 1955, lot 28, as the Nursing of Bacchus, purportedly from the collection of the Duke of Wurttemberg, in which it supposedly had a pendant (Ferrarri & Scarizzi, 1992, act A449, pp. 323-4); Leger Gallery; purchased by Ralph Dutton in 1961 (detailed in a bill of 27 February 1961); bequeathed to the National Trust by Ralph Stawell Dutton, with the rest of the collections, house, gardens and estate of Hinton Ampner.
Credit line
Hinton Ampner, The Ralph Dutton Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Luca Giordano (Naples 1632 – Naples 1705), artist
References
Ferrari and Scavazzi 1992 O. Ferrari & G. Scavazzi, Luca Giordano. L’opera completa, Naples, 1992, Cat. A. 450, p. 324, fig. 580