Christie’s roundel
Lot 178 PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN COLLECTOR (LOTS 143 & 187)

Francesco Solimena (Canale di Serino 1657-1747 Barra)

The defeat of Darius by Alexander the Great at the Battle of Issus

Closed31 August 2025

Estimate

GBP 20,000–30,000

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Francesco Solimena (Canale di Serino 1657-1747 Barra)
The defeat of Darius by Alexander the Great at the Battle of Issus
oil on canvas
26 x 23 ½ in. (66.1 x 59.6 cm.)

(Possibly) Colonna di Stigliano, Naples.
with Hazlitt Gallery, London, by 1969, until 1970,
with Bruno Meissner, Zurich, 1981.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 9 July 1999, lot 208 (£29,900).

Specialist note

This is possibly the bozzetto recorded by Francesco Colonna di Stigliano in 1895 in the inventory of the collection of his family ('Inventario dei quadri di Casa Colonna fatto da Luca Giordano', Napoli Nobilissima, V, 1895, p. 30). It relates to a picture of the same subject in the Escorial, Madrid (F. Bologna, loc. cit.). A preparatory drawing for that picture is in the Museo di San Martino, Naples (no. 20881, F. Bologna, op. cit., p. 270).

We are grateful to Professor Nicola Spinosa for confirming the attribution upon first-hand inspection. Professor Spinosa will include the work in his forthcoming monograph on the artist.