The Nativity of the Baptist

The Nativity of the Baptist (1715, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) depicts the birth of John the Baptist to the aged Elizabeth and Zechariah — the miraculous birth that prefigures the Annunciation to Mary. The subject allowed painters to represent both the domestic intimacy of a birth scene and the prophetic significance of the child who would prepare the way for Christ. By 1715 Solimena was in his late fifties and fully established as the preeminent Neapolitan painter, with an international clientele that included the Habsburg court and major collectors across Europe. Works from this period show his mature synthesis of Baroque drama with an increasingly elegant figure style that gestures toward the coming Rococo age.

Like Birth of the Virgin, this subject conventionally features a domestic interior with artificial lamplight and multiple female attendants around the mother's childbed. Solimena's confident late handling produces smooth, elegant figures with warm flesh tones against the dark ground of the Neapolitan tradition.