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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Professor Nicola Spinosa and Professor Riccardo Lattuada for independently confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.
This picture is a bozzetto for one of the canvasses painted by Francesco Solimena in the church of SS. Apostoli in Naples to cover over the frescoes by Giacomo del Po, which the monks of the church disliked. Solimena, out of respect for the other artist, did not want to destroy these frescoes; De Dominici remarks: 'ma egli come uomo morigerato non volle far cassare le pitture di Giacomo, nè dipingerle a fresco, come que' Padri desideravano [...] ma li dipinse a olio, con maniera grande, e piena maestà, che può stare al gran paragone di ciò che è sopra, che sono delle più belle opere di Lanfranco' (B. De Dominici, Vite dei pittori scultori ed architetti napoletani, Naples, 1744, ed. 1846, IV, pp. 419-20). There are documented payments for the commission dated 1697, although the paintings were not completed until March of the following year (see F. Strazzullo, 'La chiesa dei SS. Apostoli in Napoli', Regnum Dei, 1957, pp. 26-7).
Ferdinando Bologna recorded two other bozzetti relating to the SS. Apostoli commission, one with Colnaghi in London and the other in the Museo de Bellas Artes in Còrdoba (F. Bologna, Francesco Solimena, Naples, 1958, pp. 82 and 184, figs. 110-1).
The iconography of the Saint is rather unusual. The dragon may refer to the Counter Reformation, to which both the Dominican Pope Pius V and the Theatine Order (to which SS. Apostoli belonged), were energetically devoted.
This picture is a bozzetto for one of the canvasses painted by Francesco Solimena in the church of SS. Apostoli in Naples to cover over the frescoes by Giacomo del Po, which the monks of the church disliked. Solimena, out of respect for the other artist, did not want to destroy these frescoes; De Dominici remarks: 'ma egli come uomo morigerato non volle far cassare le pitture di Giacomo, nè dipingerle a fresco, come que' Padri desideravano [...] ma li dipinse a olio, con maniera grande, e piena maestà, che può stare al gran paragone di ciò che è sopra, che sono delle più belle opere di Lanfranco' (B. De Dominici, Vite dei pittori scultori ed architetti napoletani, Naples, 1744, ed. 1846, IV, pp. 419-20). There are documented payments for the commission dated 1697, although the paintings were not completed until March of the following year (see F. Strazzullo, 'La chiesa dei SS. Apostoli in Napoli', Regnum Dei, 1957, pp. 26-7).
Ferdinando Bologna recorded two other bozzetti relating to the SS. Apostoli commission, one with Colnaghi in London and the other in the Museo de Bellas Artes in Còrdoba (F. Bologna, Francesco Solimena, Naples, 1958, pp. 82 and 184, figs. 110-1).
The iconography of the Saint is rather unusual. The dragon may refer to the Counter Reformation, to which both the Dominican Pope Pius V and the Theatine Order (to which SS. Apostoli belonged), were energetically devoted.