The artist was born in the Italian province of Avellino. He received his first painting lessons from his father, Angelo Solimena. In his green years he also was influenced by the works by Italian masters Mattia Preti and Luca Giordano.

At the age of seventeen, Francesco Solimena moved to Naples, where he began to paint frescoes on religious and mythological subjects, and to try his hand, little by little, in the portrait genre. His first independent work was the design of the Church of Santa Maria Donna Regina.

In his painting The Crucifixion of Peter the Apostle, Francesco Solimena turned to the Evangelical story about the execution of one of the Jesus Christ’s main disciples. According to legend, in the year 64 AD, when Emperor Nero was persecuting Christianity, Peter was crucified upside down on an inverted cross. The Apostle himself chose such a fate, because he considered himself unworthy to die like Jesus. Before his adoption of Christianity, he was a simple fisherman named Simon. Following Christ, he became one of his twelve apostles and accepted the name of Peter. The Lord handed him the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Today, Christians revere Peter as the first bishop, the forerunner of the popes.

Solimena’s canvas depicts the place of execution of Peter, the Vatican hill on the banks of the Tiber on the Apennine Peninsula. In the center of the composition, the soldiers are erecting a cross, surrounded by detachments of soldiers and residents of Rome. Angels are soaring in the sky with the symbols of martyrdom, a palm branch and a crown.