Francesco Solimena (1657 – 1747)

• Was a prolific Italian painter of the Baroque era.
• Francesco Solimena was born in Canale di Serino, province Avellino.
• He received early training from his father, Angelo Solimena.
• He settled in Naples in 1674, there he worked in the studio of Francesco di Maria.
• He was encouraged to become an artist by Cardinal Vincenzo Orsini (later Pope Benedict XIII).
• By the 1680s, he had independent fresco commissions, and his active studio came to dominate Neapolitan painting.
• 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.
• Francesco Solimena amassed a fortune and lived in sumptuous style founded on his success.
• He died at Barra, near Naples, in 1747.
• His nephew Orazio became his pupil and successor as a painter.
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