The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple
Artist: Francesco Solimena (Italian, 1657-1747)
Date: about 1725
Dimensions:
60 in. (152.4 cm) x 80 1/4 in. (203.8 cm)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1973.44
Label Text:Operatic 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.
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.
On view
In Collection(s)