Dallas, TX – December 8, 2022 –
The Dallas Museum of Art today announced its purchase of The Triumph of Galatea by leading Italian Baroque painter Luca Giordano (1634–1705) through the Marguerite and Robert Hoffman Fund for European Art Before 1700. The acquisition of this beautiful and moving painting by one of the preeminent artists of the Baroque period allows the Museum to build upon a growing strength in Italian paintings within its historic European collection.
Painted around 1675, the massive eight-by-ten-foot oil painting is a quintessential example of the later, more ornate Baroque style. The painting helps the DMA present a more complete picture of this period, bridging the gap between the darker tenebrism of Caravaggio and his followers—represented in the Museum’s holdings by Guilio Cesare Procaccini’s Ecce Uomo, Pietro Paolini’s Bacchic Concert, and A Bravo Figure by Caravaggio’s closest follower, Bartolomeo Manfredi, another recent Hoffman Fund acquisition—and the sensuous, decorative Rococo aesthetic that succeeded it. The Triumph of Galatea is now on view in the DMA’s first-floor Concourse.
“We are thrilled to introduce Giordano to the Museum’s collection as part of our ongoing strategic acquisitions of historic European masterworks. This important acquisition is made possible by the exceptional support of Marguerite and Robert Hoffman, essential patrons within our community whose generous endowment of a fund to acquire early modern European art has allowed us to tell new stories in our galleries,” said Agustín Arteaga, the DMA’s Eugene McDermott Director.
“A disciple of both the Caravaggisti and the vibrant art and architecture of the Baroque, Giordano truly embodies the period with his stunning Triumph of Galatea, which offers breathtaking drama in its treatment of light, scale, and subject matter,” said Nicole R. Myers, Interim Chief Curator and Barbara Thomas Lemmon Senior Curator of European Art. “The installation of this work on our first-floor Concourse will welcome visitors to the Museum with a deeply emotional, yet ultimately cathartic celebration of love’s triumph over death, just as the artist intended.”
Giordano spent his early life in 17th-century Naples under the tutelage of Jusepe de Ribera, a follower of Caravaggio. During travels to Rome as a young man, he worked with artist and architect Pietro da Cartona, from whom he picked up a lighter Baroque sensibility. The Triumph of Galatea synthesizes these two styles in its telling of the myth of the sea nymph Galatea, who rejects the attention of the cyclops Polyphemus for the mortal shepherd Acis. After Polyphemus fatally wounds Acis in jealousy, a grieving Galatea pleads to the gods, who transform Acis into a river. This bittersweet story depicts the ultimate victory of love despite death, a universally recognizable sentiment that is powerfully magnified by the physical scope of the work. While Giordano found consistent inspiration in the myth of Galatea and Acis, this is the only work of his in which the myth is represented in full as a continuous narrative.
Acquired from Colnaghi at TEFAF Maastricht, The Triumph of Galatea is the first Giordano painting to enter the Museum’s collection. Currently, his work is held in the collections of major institutions around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, The National Gallery, London, and the Museo del Prado in Madrid, among others.
About the Dallas Museum of Art
Established in 1903, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is among the 10 largest art museums in the country. With a free general admission policy and community outreach efforts, the DMA is distinguished by its commitment to research, innovation and public engagement. At the heart of the Museum and its programs is its global collection, which encompasses 25,000 works and spans 5,000 years of history, representing a full range of world cultures. Located in the nation’s largest arts district, the Museum acts as a catalyst for community creativity, engaging people of all ages and backgrounds with a diverse spectrum of programming, from exhibitions and lectures to concerts, literary events and dramatic and dance presentations. The DMA is an Open Access institution, allowing all works believed to be in the public domain to be freely available for downloading, sharing, repurposing and remixing without restriction. For more information, visit dma.org.
The Dallas Museum of Art is supported, in part, by the generosity of DMA Members and donors, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts and the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture.