FRANCESCO SOLIMENA (Canale di Serino, 1657 - Barra, 1747) Portrait of Duke Hannibal Marchese Oil on canvas, 64.5X48.5 cm Provenance: Naples, private collection Exhibition: Return to Baroque. Da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli, Naples, Museo di Capodimonte, 12 December 2009 ; 11 April 2010 Bibliography: F. Petrelli, in Ritorno al Barocco: da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli, exhibition catalogue edited by N. Spinosa, Naples 2009, I, p. 282, no. 1.152 (as Francesco Solimena) N. Spinosa, Francesco Solimena (1657-1747) e le Arti a Napoli, Rome 2018, p. 555, n. 282 (as Francesco Solimena) Of high quality and fine preservation, the painting depicts Duke Annibale Marchese (1686-17532); a Neapolitan poet, man of letters and intellectual who, as a friend of Giovan Battista Vico, was also a General Field Marshal, an appointment here characterised by his armour and staff of command, together with the war scene visible in the background and the noble coat-of-arms placed in the bottom right-hand corner. In terms of style, the work can be dated to the 1830s, in analogy with the portrait of the Viceroy of Naples Count Aloys Thomas Raimund von Harrach, (Cf. Capolavori in festa. Effimero baroque a Largo di Palazzo (1683-1759), exhibition catalogue, Naples 1997, pp. 207-209, no. 2.4), making it one of his best portraits. In this regard, the peculiar relationship between the artist and the duke, whose literary exploits were illustrated by engravings designed by Solimena, should not be overlooked. We recall, for example, the 1729 volume dedicated to the 'Christian Tragedies' and 'The Viticondo' (1738), written on the occasion of the marriage between Charles of Bourbon and Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony (see Lotoro, Pittore degnissimo, & eruditissimo letterato. La grafica di Francesco Solimena nel momento arcadico, in Il capitale culturale, XIII (2016), pp. 117-152). Therefore, the portrait coincides with the moment of greatest fame of the author who, through the Habsburgs, achieved European fame, and in which he exhibits his own neo-Baroque stylistic style now distant from the Jordanesque echoes and dramatic effects of Mattia Preti, expressing an elegant concreteness and undoubted compositional balance dictated by an unexceptionable expressive force. Reference bibliography: F. Bologna, Francesco Solimena, Naples 1958, ad vocem F. Bologna, La dimensione europea della cultura artistica napoletana nel XVIII secolo, in Arti e Civiltà del Settecento a Napoli, edited by C. De Seta, Rome-Bari 1982 N. Spinosa, in Pittura napoletana del Settecento, dal Barocco al Rococò, Naples 1986, ad vocem Settecento napoletano. Sulle ali dell'aquila imperiale 1707-1734, exhibition catalogue edited by N. Spinosa and W. Prohaska, Naples 1994, ad vocem