Francesco Solimena

Anonymous sale, Manchester, New Hampshire, Northeast Auctions, November 17, 1991, lot 656 (as attributed to the school of Giuseppe Chiari), there purchased by the present collector.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This picture has been recently restored. The canvas has been lined, cleaned, retouched and varnished. This conservation is of a very high level and the picture looks wonderful in its current frame. The lining is nicely stabilizing the surface. There is an arc shaped tear in the canvas in the background in the center right, which runs approximately one foot, entering the back of the kneeling woman holding the basket. There are a couple of small breaks to the paint layer in other areas, yet in general structurally the picture is in good condition. The paint layer has been cleaned and it does not appear to have stained or discolored in any noticeable way, except possibly in the sky where some restorations has been applied to reduce the presence of the brown ground color. Many of the restorations that have been applied are visible under ultraviolet light. There are some in the cheek of the crowned female figure addressing small blemishes and spots. Some of the varnish may obscure other restorations when the painting is viewed under ultraviolet light. Beneath the knees of the princess in her dress there is a fair amount of restoration which has been beautifully applied, addressing what may be abrasion or possibly a tear. It is very hard to properly judge the extent of this and other restorations. While there are restorations here and there, visible either under ultraviolet light or obscured by an older varnish, the important thing is that the quality of the paint layer is very good and the strength and color has been retained almost throughout. The picture should be hung as is.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This impressive painting of The Finding of Moses is a rarity in Solimena's œuvre. Although a popular theme in Italian - and indeed Neapolitan - painting of the 18th century, no picture of this subject is recorded by Solimena's biographer Bernardo De Dominici.  Solimena painted this subject on two occasions - in the present version and in another canvas, now in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, which is almost identical (except for the small figures in the right background which are omitted here).¹  Solimena illustrates the moment in which Pharaoh's daughter and her handmaidens have come across Moses by the river Nile. Moses' mother had hidden him in a basket made of bulrushes in order to save him from Pharaoh's order to have all male Hebrew newborns killed. Moses was saved by Pharaoh's daughter who also later adopted him.

According to De Dominici, the youthful Solimena was inspired by Giovanni Lanfranco and Mattia Preti but his greatest influences were undoubtedly Pietro da Cortona and Luca Giordano, the latter some twenty years his senior: '... e cercando le tinte dai bei colori usati dal Cortona e da Luca Giordano, e che, mischiate col colorito appreso dal padre, ne venne a formare la sua prima maniera, che ha più del forte e del risentito'.²  As the biographer says, Solimena's early style is stronger and more colorful than that of his later pictures: the color palette adopted here is certainly reminiscent of Luca Giordano's subtle hues and The Finding of Moses is indeed characteristic of Solimena's style at this time.

The painting in St. Petersburg has been dated to the 1680s, but both Nicola Spinosa and Ferdinando Bologna correctly placed it in the middle of the following decade, when Solimena's interest in Giordano reawakened: a similar date of execution seems reasonable for the present variant. The landscape and figure types may be compared to those in Solimena's Rest on the Flight into Egypt in the Church of San Francesco, Gaeta, also datable to circa 1695.³  The angel kneeling before the Madonna and Child in that altarpiece is in the same pose as the woman holding up the basket in The Finding of Moses. Further parallels can be drawn with paintings executed in the early 1690s, in particular Solimena's Birth of the Virgin in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which due to its similarity to Giordano had been erroneously attributed to him.⁴  One of the women in the Metropolitan picture wears the same striped headdress and another wears a jewelled girdle not dissimilar to that worn by Pharaoh's daughter. Solimena adopts the same Giordanesque color palette for both paintings, further supporting a proximate date of execution.

1 Reproduced in N. Spinosa, La pittura napoletana del '600, Milan 1984, fig. 768, and more recently N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento, dal Barocco al Rococò, Naples 1986, p. 104, cat. no. 12, reproduced p. 184, fig. 15. The composition of the present painting is also slightly tighter on both vertical sides, rendering it more compact.
2 '... and striving for the beautiful colors used by Cortona and Luca Giordano, and which, blended with the coloring learnt from his father, he formed his early style, which is stronger'; B. De Dominici, Vite de' Pittori, Scultori e Architetti Napoletani, vol. III, Naples 1742, ed. R. Schettini, 1980, p. 230.
3 F. Bologna, Francesco Solimena, Naples 1958, p. 253, reproduced fig. 94.
4 Oil on canvas, 204 by 170 cm.; Bologna, op. cit., pp. 76 and 271, reproduced fig. 90, and more recently Spinosa, op. cit., 1984, fig. 757.