Giovanni Battista Spinelli - Hagar and the Angel - WGA21673

Giovanni Battista Spinelli (c.1597,

Chieti Chieti (, ; , nap, label= Abruzzese, Chjïétë, ; gr, Θεάτη, Theátē; lat, Theate, ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Central Italy, east by northeast of Rome. It is the capital of the province of Chieti in the Abruzzo region. ...

- 20 November 1647 (?), Ortona) was an Italian painter.

Biography

He was born to a wealthy family. His father, Sante, was originally from Bergamo and had moved to Chieti to be a

grain merchant The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other ...

. His sister, Caterina, was married to Baron Ludovico de Pizzis of Ortona; known for his numerous feuds. His earliest art lessons may have come from

Domenico Carpinoni Domenico Carpinoni (1566 – 11 June 1658) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance period. He was born at Clusone in the Valle Seriana. He was sent to Venice when young, and became a pupil of the younger Palma il Giovane. He painted a ''Birt ...

in the 1620s.Brief biography
@ Lib-Art Spinelli established himself throughout Abruzzo, At the there is a Coronation of Mary, done around 1630. He also painted at churches in Chieti and

Penne Penne () is an Extrusion, extruded type of pasta with cylinder (geometry), cylinder-shaped pieces, their ends cut at an angle. ''Penne'' is the plural form of the Italian ''penna'' (meaning ''feather'' but ''pen'' as well), deriving from Latin ' ...

. After 1630, he moved to Naples, where he worked with

Massimo Stanzione Massimo Stanzione (also called Stanzioni; 1585 – 1656) was an Italian Baroque painter, mainly active in Naples, where he and his rival Jusepe de Ribera dominated the painting scene for several decades. He was primarily a painter of altarpiece ...

and Battistello Caracciolo. He is believed to have been the latter's last student. Both of them had a great influence on his compositional style. His is also known to have been an avid collector of prints from Northern Europe; including Lucas van Leyden,

Hendrik Goltzius Hendrick Goltzius, or Hendrik, (; ; January or February 1558 – 1 January 1617) was a German-born Dutch printmaker, draftsman, and painter. He was the leading Dutch engraver of the early Baroque period, or Northern Mannerism, lauded for his s ...

Jacob Matham Jacob Matham (15 October 1571 – 20 January 1631), of Haarlem, was a famous engraver and pen-draftsman. Biography He was the stepson and pupil of painter and draftsman Hendrik Goltzius, and brother-in-law to engraver Simon van Poelenburgh, hav ...

and

Heinrich Aldegrever Heinrich Aldegrever or Aldegraf (1502–1555, 1558 or 1561) was a German painter and engraver. He was one of the "Little Masters", the group of German artists making small old master prints in the generation after Albrecht Dürer. Biography Pain ...

. Their influence is often obvious, especially in his mythological and historical portraits. In recent years, his works have been studied by many art historians, including

Roberto Longhi Roberto Longhi (28 December 1890 – 3 June 1970) was an Italian academic, art historian, and curator. The main subjects of his studies were the painters Caravaggio and Piero della Francesca. Early life and career Longhi was born in December 18 ...

, and his reputation has been somewhat rehabilitated. He has been especially praised for the physical and physiognomic characteristics of his figures. Many of his works can be found at

Castellammare di Stabia Castellammare di Stabia (; nap, Castiellammare 'e Stabbia) is a '' comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania region, in southern Italy. It is situated on the Bay of Naples about southeast of Naples, on the route to Sorrento. History ...

and in private collections in Naples. Other works are at the

Uffizi gallery The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

and an "Adoration of the Shepherds" is in the collection of the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

in London. His individual canvases are difficult to date and of uneven quality; having been painted to the specifications of private clients. According to his biographer,

Bernardo De Dominici Bernardo de' Dominici or Bernardo De Dominici (13 December 1683 – c. 1759) was an Italian art historian and painter of the late-Baroque period, active mainly in Naples. As a painter he was known for his landscapes, marine vedute and genre scene ...

, Spinelli gave up painting for

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

and died while conducting an experiment in 1647, at the approximate age of fifty. More recent studies suggest that he lived until at least 1658.

References/Sources

* Bernardo de Domenici, ''Vite dei Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti Napolitani'', Vol.III, 1742
Listing online
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Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

External links

More works by Spinelli
@ ArtNet {{DEFAULTSORT:Spinelli, Giovanni Battista 1590s births 1647 deaths Italian painters People from Abruzzo Religious artists