Wikipedia

Francesco Solimena

Francesco Solimena(4 October 1657 – 3 April 1747) was a prolificItalian Baroque painter,one of an established family of painters and draughtsmen.

Francesco Solimena
Self-portrait, 1730
Born(1657-10-04)4 October 1657
Canale diSerino,provinceAvellino
Died3 April 1747(1747-04-03)(aged 89)
Naples
NationalityItalian
EducationFrancesco di Maria
Known forPainting
MovementBaroque
Patron(s)Pope Benedict XIII

Biography

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Diana and Endymion,1705-1710
The Royal Hunt of Dido and Aeneas,c. 1712

Francesco Solimena was born in Canale diSerinoin the province ofAvellino.

He received early training from his father,Angelo Solimena,with whom he executed aParadisefor the cathedral ofNocera(a place where he spent a big part of his life) and aVision of St. Cyril of Alexandriafor the church of San Domenico atSolofra.[1]

He settled inNaplesin 1674, where he worked in the studio ofFrancesco di Maria.[1]He was patronized early on, and encouraged to become an artist by Cardinal Vincenzo Orsini (laterPope Benedict XIII).[1]By the 1680s, he had independent fresco commissions, and his active studio came to dominate Neapolitan painting from the 1690s through the first four decades of the 18th century. He modeled his art—for he was a highly conventional painter—after the Roman Baroque masters,Luca GiordanoandGiovanni Lanfranco,andMattia Preti,whose technique of warm brownish shadowing Solimena emulated. Solimena painted many frescoes in Naples, altarpieces, celebrations of weddings and courtly occasions, mythological subjects, characteristically chosen for their theatrical drama, and portraits. His settings are suggested with a few details—steps, archways, balustrades, columns—concentrating attention on figures and their draperies, caught in pools and shafts of light. Art historians take pleasure in identifying the models he imitated or adapted in his compositions. His numerous preparatory drawings often mix media, combiningpen and ink,chalk, and watercolor washes.

A typical example of the elaborately constructed allegorical "machines" of his early mature style, fully employing his mastery ofchiaroscuro,is theAllegory of Rule(1690) from the Stroganoff collection, which has come to theState Hermitage Museum,St Petersburg.

Francesco Solimena amassed a fortune and lived in sumptuous style founded on his success. He died atBarra,near Naples, in 1747 at the age of 89.

As Solimena had intended it, his nephewOraziobecame his pupil and successor as a painter.[2]

Career

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His large, efficiently structured atelier became a virtualacademy,at the heart of cultural life in Naples. Among his many pupils wereGiuseppe Bonito(1707–89),Domenico Antonio Vaccaro(1678-1745),Nicola Maria Rossi,Lorenzo De Caro,Jacopo Cestaro,Andrea dell'Asta,Paolo De Majo,Ludovico De Majo,Pietro Capelli,Domenico Mondo,Onofrio Avellino,Scipione Cappella,Giovanni della Camera,[3]Francesco Campora,[4]Alessandro Guglielmi,[5]Leonardo Oliviero,[6]Salvatore Olivieri,[7]Salvatore Pace,[8]Romualdo Polverino,[9]Paolo Gamba,Bernardino Fera,Evangelista Schiano,Gaspare Traversi,Francesco Narici,Alessio D'Elia,Santolo Cirillo,Michele Foschini,Tommaso Martini,Alfonso Di Spigna,Michelangelo Schilles,Giovanni Battista Vela,Ferrante Amendola,Eugenio Vegliante,Romualdo Formosa,and most notablyCorrado Giaquinto,Francesco De MuraandSebastiano Conca.The Scottish portraitistAllan Ramsayspent three years in Solimena's studio.[10]

  • Francesco Solimena
  • Portrait of a woman
  • Study for the fresco cycle of the Sacristy of a church[11]
  • Venus at the Forge of Vulcan,1704
  • Madonna and Child
  • Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple
  • Noli me tangere
  • The Assumption
  • The Annunciation
  • Jacob's Dream
The Abduction of Orithyia,c. 1730

References

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  1. ^abcPavone, Mario Alberto (2003, January 1). "Solimena family". Grove Art Online.
  2. ^Pavone, Mario Alberto,Precisazioni su Orazio Solimena,in: Prospettiva, 20 (1980), pp. 80–87.
  3. ^Boni, Filippo de' (1852).Biografia degli artisti ovvero dizionario della vita e delle opere dei pittori, degli scultori, degli intagliatori, dei tipografi e dei musici di ogni nazione che fiorirono da'tempi più remoti sino á nostri giorni. Seconda Edizione..Venice; Googlebooks: Presso Andrea Santini e Figlio. p. 171.
  4. ^Boni, page 177
  5. ^Le belle arti,Volumes 1-2, By Giovanni Battista Gennaro Grossi, Tipografia del Giornale Enciclopedico, Strada del Salvadore a Sant'Angelo a Nilo #48, Naples (1820); page 194.
  6. ^Camillo Minieri-Riccio,Memorie storiche degli scrittori nati nel regno di Napoli,L'Aquila1844, page 243.
  7. ^Minieri-Riccio, page 243.
  8. ^Minieri-Riccio, page 248.
  9. ^Minieri-Riccio, page 279.
  10. ^"Francesco Solimena, Charles Beddington Ltd".Archived fromthe originalon 8 January 2014.
  11. ^For sacristy ofSan Paolo MaggioreinNaples',Whitfield Fine Art
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