Painting Detail
Expulsion of the Moneychangers from the TempleArtist: Luca Giordano
Medium: Painting, Oil on canvas, 198x261 cm
Date: Mid-1670s
Genre: Christianity, Religious
Source: 1923
The story of Christ expelling the moneychangers from the temple is mentioned in all four Gospels. "And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and seats of them that sold doves. And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.". In this work by Luca Giordano the action has moved from the inside of the temple to just outside the entrance. In the depths we see a panorama of Jerusalem. The powerful figure of Christ cuts diagonally across the composition. The intense blue of his robe marks him out against the warm, mainly golden and olive-green colours of the painting. The stream of light which runs across the temple wall seems to accompany Christ, reinforcing the impression of energetic his movement. It illuminates him from behind and thus the expression on his face remains deep in shadow and cannot be made out.
Giordano liked to include animals in his works, where they were in keeping with the subject, and he was a talented painter of livestock. Here we see a bull, dog and lamb.