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Lot Essay
Professor Nicola Spinosa confirmed the attribution and identified this picture as a bozzetto for one of Solimena's Theological Virtues painted in fresco between the windows in the Church of Santa Maria di Donnalbina, Naples. This decoration, and that of the cupola depicting Paradise and the Vision of Saint Benedict with its pendentives representing the Evangelists, can be dated to the last five years of the seventeenth century. For the crossing, Solimena painted six large canvasses depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin.
Spinosa points out that this bozzetto is an example 'di eccezionale qualit' of the artist's development from his early dependence on Luca Giordano, and in the early 1690s his renewed interest in Mattia Preti's naturalism, towards the purer classical canon that matured after his visit to Rome in 1700-1.
Another bozzetto relating to this series of the Virtues depicts Faith with a similar niche behind her (The Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California; see N. Spinosa, La pittura Napoletana del '600, Milan, 1984, fig. 752). Two more, depicting Hope and Humility(?) (not showing the niche behind the Virtues) were sold in these Rooms, 15 April 1983, lot 13.
Spinosa points out that this bozzetto is an example 'di eccezionale qualit' of the artist's development from his early dependence on Luca Giordano, and in the early 1690s his renewed interest in Mattia Preti's naturalism, towards the purer classical canon that matured after his visit to Rome in 1700-1.
Another bozzetto relating to this series of the Virtues depicts Faith with a similar niche behind her (The Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California; see N. Spinosa, La pittura Napoletana del '600, Milan, 1984, fig. 752). Two more, depicting Hope and Humility(?) (not showing the niche behind the Virtues) were sold in these Rooms, 15 April 1983, lot 13.