Adoración de los pastores (1688)

Giordano was famous for his speed. Italians called him Luca fa presto, Luke-work-fast, for how quickly he could cover a wall or fill a canvas, and this Adoration belongs to a set on the life of the Virgin he made around 1688 for the bedroom of the Spanish queen in Madrid. The scene keeps the eye moving the way he liked. A shaft of light drops onto the newborn child and the kneeling Virgin, shepherds crowd in from the left with their gifts, and a cluster of small angels hovers above to watch. A few years after painting pictures like this, Giordano was called to Spain in person and spent a decade there working for the court. This canvas later left Madrid and now hangs in the Louvre.