The Personification of Faith

The Personification of Faith, undated and now at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, belongs to the Baroque tradition of depicting abstract virtues as female figures — a practice rooted in ancient personification and revived in the Counter-Reformation as theological concepts required vivid visual embodiment. Faith was among the three theological virtues (along with Hope and Charity) most essential to Catholic teaching, and her personification as a crowned woman holding a chalice and cross was established iconographic convention. Solimena would have produced such works both as independent devotional pictures and as components of larger allegorical programs. The undated status suggests it may have been produced across a wide span of his long career.

Personification subjects allowed Solimena to demonstrate facility with the female figure in relatively static, frontal compositions, using rich drapery and symbolic attributes rather than narrative action to carry meaning. The handling of the chalice and cross as gleaming objects within the composition tests his still-life capabilities.