(Canale di Serino 1657–1747 Barra)
The Miracle of San Gennaro,
oil on canvas, 121.5 x 102 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Nicola Spinosa for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a photograph.

This devotional painting by Francesco Solimena represents the patron saint of Naples, San Gennaro, and it is datable to around 1725. During the course of his long career the Neapolitan painter depicted the bishop-martyr saint on several occasions, such as in the composition San Gennaro with two Angels in the Palazzo Arcivescovile, Naples, commissioned, between 1701 and 1702 for the Real Cappella del Tesoro by the ‘Deputazione del Tesoro di San Gennaro’, a committee of twelve lay members. This work was probably the model for various sculptors then active in Naples, among whom Lorenzo and Domenico Antonio Vaccaro and Giacomo Colombo. Also of note is the San Gennaro in the Mazza chapel in Salerno Cathedral, as well as the San Gennaro in Glory in the Real Oratorio di San Gennaro at Capodimonte, Naples (see N. Spinosa, Francesco Solimena (1657–1747) e le Arti a Napoli, Rome 2018, pp. 334, 462, 599).

Devotion for the patron saint of Naples, who was the bishop of Benevento, is especially strong among the local population, who invoke the miracle of San Gennaro – that is the liquefaction of his congealed blood – twice a year: on the first Saturday of May, which according to the tradition is when the first transformation of the relic occurred, and on the 19 September, which is the saint’s day. This event has been of manifest importance to the religious, cultural, social and institutional life of medieval, modern and contemporary Naples. Among the most important sources recounting the history of this miraculous phenomenon is the Diario del Duomo e del Tesoro, in which, since 1659, the observed details of each single liquefaction event are recorded.