The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple

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The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple

Artist Francesco Solimena (Italian, 1657-1747)

Place of OriginItaly, Naples

Dateabout 1725

DimensionsPainting: 60 × 80 1/4 in. (152.4 × 203.8 cm)
Frame: 72 1/2 × 92 3/4 × 3 1/2 in. (184.2 × 235.6 × 8.9 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1973.44

Not on View

Label TextOperatic in its staging, this dramatic painting features a cast of some 75 figures, all unified by flickering lights and shadows. According to the Second Book of Maccabees (an apocryphal book not included in all versions of the Bible), Heliodorus, chancellor of the king of Asia, attempted to seize treasure from the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. The funds had been set aside for widows and orphans, and the high priest Onias prayed for God’s intervention to stop the plunder (Onias kneels before an altar at the upper right). In answer, God sent “a horse with a dreadful rider, adorned with magnificent trappings, and rushing swiftly at Heliodorus...struck at him with its forefeet.” Francesco Solimena conveys the suddenness of the attack and the chaos of the results, with Heliodorus cowering on the steps and one of his accomplices thrown backward over the pile of looted treasure in the foreground. The painting is Solimena’s study for his spectacular and monumental fresco across the entrance wall of the church of Gésu Nuovo in Naples.Published ReferencesDescrizione del Viaggio fatto nel Regno di Napoli da Mons. D. Camillo Cybo nell'anno 1725, MSS Gesuitici, 98, Biblioteca Nazionale, Rome, f. 21.

Dominici, Bernardo de, Vite dei Pittori, Scultori e Architetti Napoletani, Naples, 1742-1744, Edition of 1840-1846, IV, p. 454 (quotes Cybo).

Bologna, Ferdinardo, Francesco Solimena, Naples, 1958, p. 194, cf. fresco, p. 259.

"Treasures for Toledo," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 19, nos. 2 & 3, 1976, p. 69, repr.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 48.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 154, pl. 24.

" La chronique des arts, " Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 89, no. 1298, Mar. 1977, p. 91.

Schulze, Franz, "A Consistantly Discriminating Connoisseurship," Art News, vol. 76, no. 4, Apr. 1977, p. 67.

Civilta del '700 a Napoli 1734-1799, vol. 1, Naples, 1980, no. 75, p. 176, repr. p. 177.

Stoughton, Michael, "The Golden Age of Naples: Art and Civilization Under the Bourbons 1734-1805," (revised) Art Journal, vol. 42, no. 1, Spring 1982, p. 54, repr.

Spinosa, Nicola, Pittura napoletana del settecento, dal barocco al rococo, Naples, 1988, no. 42, p. 115, pl. 7, 8 (col. det) pp. 23, 25, fig. 48, p. 204.

Hamilton-Phillips, Martha, "Museums and Exhibitions Forum: Toledo Museum of Art," Eighteenth Century Life, vol. 16, n.s., 2, May 1992, pp. 107-108, pl. 2.

Christiansen, Keith, Italian Painting, New York, 1992, repr. pp. 152-153 (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 102, repr. (col.).

Hojer, Annette, "Héliodore chassé du Temple de Francesco Solimena: le rôle complexe de l'esquisse conservée au Louvre," Revue du Louvre: La Revue des Musees de France, v.60 no.3, 2010, pp. 49-52, 54 (note 4), fig. 4 (col.), p.51, fig. 7 (col. det.), p. 53 (col. det.).

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Heim, Paintings and Sculptures of the Italian Baroque, 1973, no. 10, repr.

Detroit Institute of Arts; Art Institute of Chicago, The Golden Age of Naples, 1981-1982, no. 44, pp. 142, 144, repr.

New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery; Sarasota, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art; Kansas City, MO, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, A Taste of Angels, 1987-1988, no. 26, pp. 207-210, repr. (col.) p. 206, fig. 88 (det.).