Trinitarian Theology, Neapolitan Painting: Paolo De Matteis and Francesco Solimena

Abstract In early eighteenth-century Naples, Paolo De Matteis created a series of frescoes featuring the Trinity in imitation of a mural at the Escorial by his former teacher, Luca Giordano. By showing the Trinity with its patrilinear procession from the Father to the Son, the younger artist could claim an artistic lineage in competition with Francesco Solimena. De Matteis’s and Solimena’s Trinitarian murals reveal theological disagreements between religious orders in Naples. An unknown drawing in the Seattle Art Museum can be associated with De Matteis’s group of works.