N. Spinosa Biography
Nicola Spinosa, born in Naples in 1943, became a member of the Superintendency for the Artistic and Historical Heritage of Naples in 1969, with the qualification of art historian. He was subsequently integrated into the Neapolitan Museum Complex, where he served as Superintendent from 1984 to 2009. From 1992 to 2010, he was a teacher of Museology and History of Collecting at the 'Suor Orsola Benincasa' University Institute of Naples.
He was responsible for the renovation of the collections of the Capodimonte Museum, including the addition of a new wing for contemporary art, of the Certosa and the National Museum of San Martino and of the oriental collections of the 'Duca di Martina' Museum. In 1989 he inaugurated Castel Sant'Elmo as a venue for temporary exhibitions, the art history library and the Museum of the Twentieth Century in Naples.
He promoted the restoration of important works of art, including the Arch of Aragon in Castel Nuovo, the frescoes by Domenichino and Giovanni Lanfranco in the Chapel of the Treasure of San Gennaro, the marbles of the Caracciolo Chapel in Vico and of Ser Gianni Caracciolo in San Giovanni a Carbonara, paintings by various artists, including Titian and Caravaggio, at the Capodimonte Museum and the large canvas with the Works of Mercy by Caravaggio himself in the Pio Monte church.
He curated, coordinated or promoted various exhibitions of the Superintendence, both in Naples and abroad, from 1979 to 2009. Among the exhibitions in which he participated there are those on the civilization of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries in Naples, on the late Caravaggio, on Jusepe de Ribera, on Bernardo Cavallino, on Luca Giordano, on Neapolitan views from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, on the baroque in Naples and on some contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol, Gianni Kounellis, Gino De Dominici, Louise Bourgeois and others.
He has also published numerous essays and monographs on art personalities in Naples and Italy, with particular attention to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He studied decoration in the Baroque age, painting with 'genre scenes' and 'still life', Ribera and Cavallino. He is currently working on a monograph on Francesco Solimena and his time.
In 1998, he was awarded the title of Commander for cultural merit by the President of the Italian Republic. In 2000, for the same reasons, he received the honor of Knight of the Lègion d'Honeur of the French Republic.
