When Giordano was about seventeen years old, having learned from Ribera
all he could teach him, he conceived a strong desire to prosecute his
studies at Rome. To this step, his father, who was poor, and could
perhaps ill afford to lose his earnings, refused to give his consent.
Luca therefore embraced the earliest opportunity to abscond, and ran
away on foot to the metropolis of art, where he applied himself with the
greatest assiduity. He copied all the great frescos of Raffaelle in the
Vatican several times; he next turned his rapid pencil against the works
of Annibale Caracci in the Farnese palace. Meantime, his father divining
the direction which the truant had taken, followed him to Rome, where,
after a long search, he discovered him sketching in St. Peter's church.