# Giordano’s fishermen emerge from private hands Canonical article: https://arthistory.news/news/giordano-s-fishermen-emerge-from-private-hands-8d3b6116-f9dd-4926-94f5-50d26686c322 By ArtHistory.News Published: 2026-11-03T08:02:50.343Z Peter and Andrew are about to abandon their livelihood. Beside them, another fisherman remains absorbed in the catch, apparently oblivious to the encounter that will change their lives. That contrast between revelation and everyday work animates Luca Giordano’s The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew, now receiving its first public showing at the MarteS Museo d’Arte Sorlini near Lake Garda. Dated to about 1665, the large canvas has come from an unnamed private collection for a short exhibition at the museum in Calvagese della Riviera. Light catches the brothers’ powerful bodies as they respond to Christ, who stands further back on the left. Their uncertainty gives the biblical episode its human weight: the call has been heard, but its consequences have yet to unfold. Giordano was around 30 when he painted it, already developing the extraordinary versatility that would carry him from Naples to the great decorative commissions of Florence and Madrid. His early formation in the orbit of Jusepe de Ribera had given him a taste for forceful naturalism, substantial bodies and figures brought sharply out of darkness. Yet he was unusually receptive to other painters. Roman Baroque grandeur and the colour of sixteenth-century Venice became part of a repertoire he could draw upon with remarkable freedom. The exhibition’s organisers suggest that The Calling belongs to his Venetian stay of 1664-65. Its combination of Ribera’s physical intensity with a broader, more colourful conception of religious painting makes that encounter the central question of the display. At MarteS, the canvas is placed alongside works by Andrea Celesti, Antonio Zanchi and Girolamo Forabosco, allowing visitors to consider Giordano within the Venetian world rather than simply as a Neapolitan visitor passing through. There is particular value in an exhibition of this scale. A single loan can give familiar paintings new company and bring an unfamiliar work into a setting where it can be studied. Here, the subject offers its own invitation to slow down. The brothers are caught at the threshold of a new existence; the fisherman beside them is still attending to the business of the day. Luca fa’ presto. Una Conversione inedita di Luca Giordano runs at MarteS Museo d’Arte Sorlini, Calvagese della Riviera, until 29 November 2026. An accompanying monograph is published by Silvana Editoriale. ## Illustrations Luca Giordano \(Napoli, 1634 – 1705\), La Vocazione dei Santi Pietro e Andrea all’apostolato, 1665 circa, Olio su tela, cm 192x252 Private Collection [Image source](). ## Sources - [ArtHistory.News editor: ArtHistory.News editor]() ## Related records - [Jusepe de Ribera]() - [Luca Giordano]() Please cite the canonical article URL above. Image credits and reproduction rights remain with their respective holders.