Antonio solimena biography death

Francesco Solimena 4 October — 3 April was a prolific Italian Baroque painter , one of an established family of painters and draughtsmen.

He died at Barra, near Naples, in at the age of As Solimena had intended it, his nephew Orazio became his pupil and successor as a painter.

Francesco Solimena was born in Canale di Serino in the province of Avellino. He received early training from his father, Angelo Solimena , with whom he executed a Paradise for the cathedral of Nocera a place where he spent a big part of his life and a Vision of St. Cyril of Alexandria for the church of San Domenico at Solofra. He settled in Naples in , where he worked in the studio of Francesco di Maria.

He modeled his art—for he was a highly conventional painter—after the Roman Baroque masters, Luca Giordano and Giovanni Lanfranco , and Mattia 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.

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Art historians take pleasure in identifying the models he imitated or adapted in his compositions. His numerous preparatory drawings often mix media, combining pen and ink , chalk, and watercolor washes. A typical example of the elaborately constructed allegorical "machines" of his early mature style, fully employing his mastery of chiaroscuro , is the Allegory of Rule from the Stroganoff collection, which has come to the State Hermitage Museum , St Petersburg.

Francesco Solimena amassed a fortune and lived in sumptuous style founded on his success. He died at Barra , near Naples, in at the age of As Solimena had intended it, his nephew Orazio became his pupil and successor as a painter. His large, efficiently structured atelier became a virtual academy , at the heart of cultural life in Naples. The Scottish portraitist Allan Ramsay spent three years in Solimena's studio.

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