Antonio Solario

In Naples, his main work were twenty large frescoes illustrating the Life of St Benedict in the cloister of the monastery of Santi Severino e Sossio (now the State Archives), which are open to the elements, though covered, and are now greatly decayed; they present a vast variety of figures and details, with dexterous modeling and coloring.

His works are sometimes confused with those of his contemporary Andrea Solario, a Milanese follower of Leonardo da Vinci.

The portrait of Charles II d'Amboise in the Louvre, who now attribute it as a copy of a work by Andrea, is a case in point.

[7] Unfortunately, the only biography of Solario written by a local personage was penned by Bernardo de' Dominici (1683–1759), the "Neapolitan Vasari", who wrote an often confused and error-ridden Vite dei Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti Napolitani.

He is called the son of a tinker, and, after a romantic interlude, became son-in-law of Niccolò Antonio Colantonio, the leading artist in mid-15th-century Naples.