Attributed to Francesco Solimena
The story
Attributed to Francesco Solimena means the museum believes a picture is his without being able to prove it. With Solimena that line is hard to draw. He often painted the same subject more than once, in versions of different sizes, and assistants worked on many of the large canvases that left his studio in Naples. His pupils included Francesco De Mura, who became a leading Neapolitan painter in his own right, and Sebastiano Conca, who went on to make his career in Rome, and both began by painting very much in their master's way.
The studio also drew visitors from far away. In 1737 the young Scottish portrait painter Allan Ramsay spent time there, making portrait drawings of British residents in Naples.
