Diego Pignatelli d'Aragona (1687–1750) and an Enslaved African Servant

Francesco Solimena

probably 1731 or 1732 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

Diego Pignatelli, Duke of Terranova and a prince of the Holy Roman Empire, would have approved this small oil sketch before Solimena, the leading painter of eighteenth-century Naples, began the final portrait in life-size. The commission was probably prompted by Pignatelli’s elevation in 1731 to the Order of the Golden Fleece, whose robes and collar he proudly wears. In the seventeenth century, Van Dyck had popularized the grand, full-length format of a regal European accompanied by an exoticized, typically enslaved, African attendant.

Artist

Francesco Solimena

Date

probably 1731 or 1732

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1967