The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2023

The Risen Christ Appearing to the Virgin

c. 1708

Francesco Solimena

(Italian, 1657–1747)

Italy, 18th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 250.2 x 197.5 x 12.7 cm (98 1/2 x 77 3/4 x 5 in.); Unframed: 222.5 x 169.5 cm (87 5/8 x 66 3/4 in.)

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1971.63

Location

217 Italian Baroque

Description

The dramatic contrasts of light and dark reveal the long aftereffects of Caravaggio in Naples. Yet, the elegant forms, rich colors, and perfected body of Christ have far more affinities with the idealizing strand of Italian art in the 1600s and 1700s. Solimena sought to improve on nature, based on the study of antiquity, aiming to create a work of grandeur and nobility meant to inspire reverence and devotion appropriate to the holy subject.

Provenance
Unidentified church in France (sale: Palais des Congres, Versailles, May 24, 1970 [withdrawn], fig. D, as Spanish School, seventeenth century, La resurrection);
[Heim Gallery, Paris, London], sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1971.
Citations
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 140 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Mentioned: p. 417-419; Reproduced: p. 418
Marandel, J. Patrice. "Dealing and Scholarship: The Heim Gallery, London, 1966-1995." In Buying Baroque: Italian Seventeenth-Century Paintings Come to America. Bowron, Edgar Peters. ed. University Park, Pennsylvania : The Frick Collection, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 87-88
Spinosa, Nicola. Francesco Solimena (1657-1747) e le arti a Napoli Roma : Ugo Bozzi editore s.r.l., 2018. Mentioned & Reproduced: p. 369, fig. 147
Exhibition history

London, Heim Gallery, 1971: "Fourteen Important Neapolitan Paintings," cat. no. 9, repr.color.

CMA, Dec. 1971-Jan.1972: "Year in Review 1971," cat., Bull., (Jan. 1972), no. 55.

Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, (9/9/87-12/6/87) Neapolitan Paintings in North America.

Year in Review: 1971. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1971-February 6, 1972).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1971.63