Apollo in his Chariot

Luca Giordano (Italian (Neapolitan), 1634–1705)

about 1685

Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 118.5 x 176.5cm (46 5/8 x 69 1/2in.)
Framed: 139.7 x 195.6 x 7.6 cm (55 x 77 x 3 in.)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Harriet Ropes Cabot in memory of Mrs. A. Lawrence Lowell

Accession number47.1566

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

ProvenanceBy 1737, Pier Carlo Rinuccini, Florence [see note 1]; by descent to Pierfrancesco Rinuccini (b. 1788 - d. 1848), Florence; 1852, sold from the Rinuccini collection to Francis George Shaw (b. 1809 - d. 1882) for Francis Cabot Lowell (b. 1803 - d. 1874), Boston and Waltham, MA [see note 2]; to his son, George Gardner Lowell (b. 1830 - d. 1885), Boston; to his daughter, Anna Parker Lowell (b. 1856 - d. 1930), Boston; 1930, by inheritance to her husband, Abbott Lawrence Lowell (b. 1856 - d. 1943), Boston; about 1933, given by Abbott Lawrence Lowell to Mrs. Lowell's cousin once removed, Harriet Ropes Cabot (b. 1908 - d. 2002), Boston; 1947, gift of Harriet Ropes Cabot to the MFA [see note 3]. (Accession Date: December 11, 1947)

NOTES:
[1] Lent to the annual exhibition of San Luca, Florence, in 1737 as "Un Apollo di Giordano dell' Ill. Sig. March. Pier Carlo Rinuccini." Oreste Ferrari and Giuseppe Scavizzi, Luca Giordano (Naples, 1966), vol. 2, p. 125. It was listed in the Catalogo dei Quadri ed Altri Oggetti della Galleria Rinuccini (Florence, 1845), Seconda Stanza, as "Frammento di un quadro rappresentante il Carro del Sole" by Giordano.

[2] Much of the Rinuccini collection was auctioned at the Palazzo Rinuccini, Florence in May, 1852. This painting was not included in the sale. On May 24, 1852, Shaw wrote to Francis Cabot Lowell that "I have succeeded in getting for you the only pictures on your list which have as yet [not?] been sold from the Rinacini [sic] gallery ... Giordano's Carro del Sole."

[3] Accessioned as a work by Guido Reni.