The Risen Christ Appearing to the Virgin (c. 1708): Art, History and Details

The Risen Christ Appearing to the Virgin (c. 1708) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Francesco Solimena (Italian, 1657–1747).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The dramatic contrasts of light and dark reveal the long aftereffects of Caravaggio in Naples. Yet, the elegant forms, rich colors, and perfected body of Christ have far more affinities with the idealizing strand of Italian art in the 1600s and 1700s. Solimena sought to improve on nature, based on the study of antiquity, aiming to create a work of grandeur and nobility meant to inspire reverence and devotion appropriate to the holy subject.

Object facts

• Title: The Risen Christ Appearing to the Virgin
• Date: c. 1708
• Creator attribution: Francesco Solimena (Italian, 1657–1747)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 250.2 x 197.5 x 12.7 cm (98 1/2 x 77 3/4 x 5 in.); Unframed: 222.5 x 169.5 cm (87 5/8 x 66 3/4 in.)
• Collection: P - Italian 18th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1971.63

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Bologna, Ferdinando. Francesco Solimena. Napoli: L’Arte tipografica, 1958.
• Réau, Louis. Iconographie de L’art Chrétien. [1. éd.]. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1959.
• Causa, Raffaello. Opere d’Arte Nel Pio Monte Della Misericordia a Napoli. Cava dei Tirreni: Mauro, 1970.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.