The Risen Christ Appearing to the Virgin

Francesco Solimena (Italian, 1657–1747)

c. 1708

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
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.)
Culture
Italy
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, European Painting and Sculpture
Credit line
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

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.