Heliodorus Driven from the Temple

In 1720 Victor Amadeus II of Savoy changed kingdoms. The great powers made him give up Sicily, which he had ruled as king since 1713, and take Sardinia in exchange, and at home his architect Filippo Juvarra was reshaping Turin. Around that year the king ordered four large Old Testament scenes from Francesco Solimena in Naples for a room of his winter apartment in the royal palace, which came to be called the Solimena room. The subjects were chosen to speak of the virtues of royal power.

This is one of the four. In the Second Book of Maccabees, Heliodorus, minister to a Seleucid king, comes to Jerusalem to seize the Temple treasury and is driven out by a horseman in golden armour and two young men who flog him. The museum dates the canvas to between 1721 and 1723 and catalogues it as attributed to Solimena, while its visitor guide names him plainly. All four canvases hang together in Sala 41.