The Nativity with Adoring Angels

The Nativity with Adoring Angels, dated 1645 and now at Northampton Museum, was painted when Solimena was still a very young artist — if the date is accurate — or represents an early mature work from the 1690s with a misrecorded date. Solimena was born in 1657, making a 1645 date impossible for his own work; the painting may be misdated or by another hand. If placed in the early 1690s when Solimena was establishing his independent career, it would represent his engagement with one of the most traditional of devotional subjects: the Christ child worshipped by Mary, Joseph, and a host of celebrating angels. Such works were staples of Neapolitan church decoration and private devotion throughout the seventeenth century.

Nativity compositions with angels require Solimena to handle both earthly and celestial figure groups within a unified space. The soft radiance of the Christ child provides the pictorial light source, while the angels above dissolve into a luminous atmospheric zone distinct from the stable interior below.