The Birth of the Virgin

Spain ruled vast portions of Europe during the seventeenth century, including the Kingdom of Naples in present-day Italy and Flanders in present-day Belgium. The result was a complex cultural and artistic web, particularly around the maintenance of the Catholic faith. Painted in Naples in the 1690s, early in Solimena’s long career, this altarpiece reveals a close relationship to the painter Rubens, who was highly sought after at the Spanish court, as well as the painter Luca Giordano, who had moved in 1692 from Naples to Madrid to work for King Charles II. When this painting was acquired by The Met in 1906, it was believed to be by Giordano; by the 1970s, however, scholars had reattributed it to Solimena.