Francesco Solimena was an Italian painter who dominated the artistic life of Naples and introduced a more classical style in the wake of Giordano's exuberant Baroque manner. Son of an artist, Angelo Solimena (1629-1716), he was trained by the academic painter Francesco di Maria (d. 1670).

His early career blossomed in his work at S. Paolo Maggiore, Naples, where he decorated the sacristy: Virtues on the vault and two large frescoes of the Conversion of Saul and the Fall of Simon Magus on the walls (1689-80). Although boldly executed and brightly coloured in the manner of Giordano they show a far more academic approach to design and dramatic narrative. His Miracle of S. John of God for ...