Alexander Condemning False Praise

Francesco de Mura (1696-1784) was a Neapolitan painter known for the elegant, late Baroque manner that distinguishes his work from the more dramatic Neapolitan tradition of his predecessors. Alexander Condemning False Praise from the 1760s depicts the historical episode in which Alexander the Great condemns flattery in the elegant, late Baroque manner that de Mura developed as an alternative to the more dramatic style of Solimena and the earlier Neapolitan Baroque. The 1760s date places this in de Mura's mature period, when he was producing the elegant, refined paintings that represent a late phase of the Neapolitan Baroque tradition.

Alexander Condemning False Praise is important in the history of Neapolitan painting because it demonstrates the elegant, late Baroque manner that de Mura developed as an alternative to the more dramatic Neapolitan tradition. The historical subject—alluding to the rejection of flattery—allows de Mura to exercise the moral seriousness of the Baroque tradition within the elegant, refined manner that distinguishes his late Neapolitan Baroque from the more dramatic style of his predecessors.

Alexander Condemning False Praise is de Mura's elegant late Neapolitan Baroque: the historical episode of Alexander rejecting flattery rendered in the refined manner that distinguishes his work from the more dramatic Solimena tradition. The 1760s painting represents the elegant, late phase of the Neapolitan Baroque.