Giordano resided at Rome about three years with his father, who seems to
have been a helpless creature, subsisting by the sale of his son's
drawings; but Luca cared for nothing but his studies, satisfied with a
piece of bread or a few maccaroni. When their purse was low, the old man
would accompany him to the scene of his labors, and constantly urge him
on, by repeating _Luca, fa presto_, (hurry Luca) which became a byword
among the painters, and was fixed upon the young artist as a nickname,
singularly appropriate to his wonderful celerity of execution. He
afterwards traveled through Lombardy to Venice, still accompanied by his
father, and having studied the works of Correggio, Titian, and other
great masters, returned by way of Florence and Leghorn to Naples, where
he soon after married the Donna Margarita Ardi, a woman of exquisite
beauty, who served him as a model for his Virgins, Madonnas, Lucretias,
and Venuses.