Gaetano Spinelli Biography
Gaetano Spinelli was born in Bitonto in 1887 and, after obtaining a diploma from the "Carmine Sylos" technical school, he joined the "Pleiade" group, an important Bitonto association of Letters and Arts, together with personalities such as Giovanni Modugno, Raffaele Piro and Giuseppe Caiati. However, his actual cultural and artistic training took place in Naples, where, at the end of the 19th century, he attended the Institute of Fine Arts and the School of Painting, under the teaching of two well-known masters, Domenico Morelli and Filippo Palizzi, who they try to revive the glorious Neapolitan school in a unified way at a national level.
Subsequently, Spinelli moved to Turin, Sassari (where he met his future wife), Palermo and, for a short period of time, succeeded his father as director of the Bitonto school. He will then be in Florence where, in his artistic workshop, he trains students such as Pietro Annigoni, Carlo Carrà and Pietro Bargellini.
Spinelli's artistic language expresses strong feelings that materialize in bright and vibrant colors, thanks to the dominant presence of Light, present in all of his works, from the scene of daily peasant life to the portrait. However, in the last years of his life, his art underwent a transformation due to the effects of the tragic Second World War: the intense colors gave way to melancholy tones and the light became dim.
