Offered by Antichità Castelbarco
Francesco Solimena (Canale di Serino 1657 - Barra 1747)
workshop/circle
The Allegory of Europe
oil on canvas
102 x 76 cm. - with frame: 119 x 92 cm.
The work, which can be placed around the beginning of the 18th century, reproposes a subject conceived by Solimena and which was then very successful: it is the Allegory of Europe, which together with three other compositions, namely the allegories of Asia, Africa and America, belonged to the series of personifications of the ‘Four Parts of the World’ that Francesco Solimena painted in 1738.
Originally executed as frescoes, they were conceived to decorate the private chamber of Charles III of the House of Bourbon in the Royal Palace of Naples and painted to celebrate his marriage to Maria Amalia of Saxony.
The centrepiece of the representation, in our painting, is the female figure, depicted with regal attributes, seated with an imperious air while with her left hand she holds the model of an architectural building (a temple), aided by a putto, while with the other hand she points to a crown and a papal tiara, resting on a plinth bearing the name Europa.
Of these wall paintings, which were lost during the fire that destroyed the flats in 1837, several studio versions are preserved, many of them oval in format, such as the four canvases now in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery in and traditionally considered preparatory sketches for the fresco. Other paintings are held in private collections or passed on the antiques market:
- Berlin, Alte Nationalgalerie
- Hazlitt Gallery, London (UK), reported in
- Sothebys, New York, 26 May 2022:
The proposed canvas, in particular, is certainly the work of a painter from Solimena's workshop or, in any case, from Solimena's close circle. Examination of the technique of execution reveals a rapid drafting, typical of model paintings, and thus analysis of the cretto would also indicate a coeval date and thus a probable genesis in the master's workshop.
The painting offered here can in fact be compared with the prototype in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery, although the composition is specular, and could therefore be another version executed with some variations by a pupil in his studio. In the then capital of the Austrian viceroyalty, Solimena gave life to a prestigious workshop in which some of the greatest painters of 18th-century Naples were trained.
The painting is in good condition.
Delevery information :
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Should you have the desire to see this or other works in person, we would be happy to welcome you to our gallery in Riva del Garda, Viale Giuseppe Canella 18, we are always open by appointment only.
