Giordano, Luca (1634-1705)
La fuga in Egitto (The Flight into Egypt)
1701
Oil on canvas, 61.5 x 48.9 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
In 1692 Giordano was summoned to Spain as court painter to King Charles II. Charles was succeeded in 1700 by the Bourbon king Philip V, who commissioned a number of paintings from Giordano for the French court, including this work. From 1701 until 1717 the painting was in the possession of Adrien-Maurice, comte d’Ayen, later duc de Noailles, who played an important part in the War of the Spanish Succession and married a niece of Madame de Maintenon. (MET)