Winstanley, Hamlet (c.1694-1756; English), after Giordano, Luca (1634-1705; Italian)
The Flight into Egypt 1728
Etching, 48 x 63 (sheet)
Acquired by 1868
National Gallery of Victoria (p.178.17-1)
This work reproduces (in reverse) a painting by noted Italian Baroque artist Giordano, clearly identified in the Latin inscription at lower left (L.Jordanz pinxit). The other inscriptions provide further information about the print’s authorship and origins, noting Winstanley as the print-maker (lower right), and indicating that the painting was then held at Knowsley Hall in the collection of the Earl of Derby (called “Jacobi,” i.e. James Stanley, 10th Earl, 1702-36). Unfortunately, the print is in mediocre condition, with damage clearly caused by an old attempt to repair the central fold at the back.
The original painting, ascribed to Giordano, c.1670, is now in the Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University, having been acquired by donation in 1975, some years after its sale at the Lord Derby collection auction at Christie’s in 1940.
The Eskenazi Museum’s detailed record of the painting indicates that the painting was purchased for Stanley in Italy in 1723 by Winstanley, a painter, print-maker and art-dealer who was trained by Godfrey Kneller and later (briefly) taught George Stubbs. Winstanley, employed by Stanley from the early 1720s onwards (including an extended visit to Italy from 1723-5), was well known for the series of etchings he produced, mostly in 1728-29, known as the “Knowsley Gallery,” which included reproductions of a number of the Earl’s Old Master paintings.
Refs.
Not listed in NGV 1894 or 1905
For the NGV impression (possibly although not certainly one of the prints donated by John Pascoe Fawkner in 1868), see https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/36877 (as by an unknown print-maker after Giordano; not reproduced); author’s ID photo reproduced here.
Another impression, dated to 1728, and credited to both Winstanley and Giordano, is held by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (acc.no.1963.30.11172): see https://www.famsf.org/artworks/angel-telling-joseph-to-flee-into-egypt (accessed 2 October 2026). The Boydells’ Alphabetical Catalogue… (London, 1803; available through Google Books), p.14, also lists an impression, priced at 10/6.
For the original painting in Indiana (acc.no.75.123, gift of Mr Nicholas Acquavella), see https://collections.artmuseum.indiana.edu/browse/object.php?id=10910 (also accessed 2 October 2026). Many thanks to Heather Anne Hales, Associate Registrar, Eskenazi Museum, for forwarding an ID photo and further details, also in October 2026, including specialist references on Giordano, notably the catalogue raisonné by Oreste Ferrari & Giuseppe Scavizzi (Naples, 1966, vol.2, p.108). For general information on Giordano, see e.g. Bénézit 6, pp.220-24 and AKL 54 (2007), pp.418-22.
For Winstanley, see https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Winstanley,_Hamlet_(DNB00) (reprinting the entry by Thomas Seccombe in the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, vol.62); and http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O69585/hamlet-winstanley-1694-1756-relief-gvdr/ (these sites also accessed 10 July 2020); estimates of the exact date of his birth vary somewhat in these different sources. Wikipedia also provides further information on Knowsley Hall and the Earls of Derby.