Saturday, April 6, 2019

Francesco Solimena (1657-1747) - Naples - I

Francesco Solimena
Study of Female Figure
(for handmaiden in painting, Boreas abducting Oreithyia)
ca. 1700-1701
oil on canvas
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Francesco Solimena
Sketch for an Angel
before 1747
oil on canvas
private collection

Francesco Solimena
Sketch for an Angel
before 1747
oil on canvas
private collection

Francesco Solimena
St John the Baptist
1730
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid

"Francesco Solimena settled in Naples in 1674 and became the unchallenged head of the Neapolitan school of painting during the first half of the 1700s.  He modeled his painting on the exuberant Baroque style of his predecessor, Luca Giordano, modified by the classical tendencies of Roman decorator Pietro da Cortona.  The brownish shadows that are such an identifiable element of Solimena's style are indebted to Giovanni Lanfranco and Mattia Preti.  Flickering patterning of light and shade, clarity of line, and theatricality are equally characteristic of Solimena's art.  Despite a first impression of a Baroque compositional free-for-all, with people in all manner of activity and poses, Solimena's figure style was actually very conventional.  His figures often derived from classicizing masters of the past such as Annibale Carracci, Domenichino, and Raphael.  Despite working his whole life in Naples, Solimena became one of the most influential artists in Europe.  He acquired great wealth, lived in a palace, became a baron, and was in constant demand by royal patrons, including Prince Eugene of Savoy and Louis XIV of France.  Solimena established his own academy, which became the center of Neapolitan artistic life, and trained innumerable young painters, including Sebastiano Conca." 

– curator's notes from the Getty Museum

Francesco Solimena
Virgin and Child
ca. 1720-30
oil on canvas
Glasgow Museums

Francesco Solimena
Virgin and Child with St Genaro and St Sebastian 
ca. 1700
oil on canvas
Milwaukee Art Museum

Francesco Solimena
Virgin and Child with St Genaro and St Sebastian 
(detail)
ca. 1700
oil on canvas
Milwaukee Art Museum

Francesco Solimena
Venus receiving Arms of Aeneas from Vulcan
(study for painting)
1704
drawing
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Francesco Solimena
Venus receiving Arms of Aeneas from Vulcan
1704
oil on canvas
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Francesco Solimena
Aurora taking leave of Tithonus
1704
oil on canvas
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Francesco Solimena
Death of Messalina
(study for painting)
ca. 1704-1712
drawing
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Francesco Solimena
Death of Messalina
ca. 1704-1712
oil on canvas
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

follower of Francesco Solimena
St Michael defeating Satan
ca. 1700-1725
oil on canvas
National Trust, Hinton Ampner, Hampshire

follower of Francesco Solimena
Group of Four Men
ca. 1720-30
oil on panel
Glasgow Museums