The female figure on the right, its rigorous, almost columnar setting, harks back to classicist prototypes from Bologna and Rome.
The young servant on the left, kneeling, is inspired by solutions by Giordano, then acquired by Solimena in his youth.
The formal elaboration of the entire context is therefore aimed at mediating a series of iconographic and pictorial references from models that prevailed in the center-north, subjected to a lively chromatic modulation, pushed towards the Giordano side.
Biblical Narrative
Conceived in the wake of the Nordic currents that penetrated southern Italy, the painting offers ample space to the sequence of halfnaked female figures crowding around a youthful figure of King Solomon, contradicting the biblical testimony that refers to his old age.