Mattia Jona, Master Drawings and Prints, Japanese Prints - Piazzetta Guastalla 5, 20122 Milan, Italy, tel (+39) 02 8053315

FRANCESCO SOLIMENA (Canale di Serino 1657 - Barra 1747) JUPITER
Black chalk, stumped, 251 x 196 mm. Watermark 'Crowned escutcheon with bishop's hat and cane'.
PROVENANCE: Professor Gerardo Santini (?-1988), Bologna; private collection, Milan.
The drawing is to be dated to the later years of Solimena's activity and compares well with the 'Death of Cleopatra' at the 'Società Napoletana di Storia Patria' (inv. 11771). See: Marina Causa Picone, 'Disegni della Società Napoletana di Storia Patria', Naples, 1974; cat. no, 1420, illustrated plate 80.

Solimena received his early training from his father, Angelo Solimena. He settled in Naples in 1674, there he worked in the studio of Francesco di Maria and later Giacomo del Po. After the departure of Luca Giordano for Spain, he became the unchallenged head of the Neapolitan school of painting during the first half of the 1700s. Solimena modeled his painting on the exuberant Baroque style of Giordano, modified by the classical tendencies of Pietro da Cortona. He was also influenced by Giovanni Lanfranco and Mattia Preti. Despite working his whole life in Naples, Solimena became one of the most influential artists in Europe; he established his own Academy and his pupils Francesco de Mura, Sebastiano Conca and Corrado Giaquinto spread the style of their master over many European courts. Solimena acquired great wealth, lived in a palace, became a baron, and was in constant demand by royal patrons. His sense of elegance anticipates aspects of the Rococo style.