In his day, Luca Giordano (1634-1705) was famous, long-lived, and much travelled. Born in Naples, he worked there, in Florence and in Venice, and later in life for the court in Spain, before returning to paint in his native city, which was then under Spanish rule.

By the 19th century, however, the baroque, and most especially the Neapolitan Baroque, was marginalized by scholars and the nouveau riche Americans who founded public art museums. While Renaissance art could readily be secularized, the Italian Baroque was seen, rightly, as all too Catholic.