Francesco Solimena

1657–1747

Francesco Solimena was a prolific Italian Baroque painter, one of an established family of painters and draughtsmen. In his early years, influenced above all by Luca Giordano and Mattia Preti, he developed a highly personal and dramatic handling of light and shade, yet his later art reveals a tendency towards a more restrained classicism. Solimena had many pupils, making him one of the strongest influence in Neapolitan painting of the early 18th century.