AFC Newsletter Fall 2023
/October 2023
Dear American Friends of Capodimonte,
Our third AFC Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow has arrived in Naples and is already hard at work. Emma de Jong is a specialist of Dutch and Flemish art, and her fellowship will focus on Northern European prints in the collection of Carlo Firmian (1716-1782).
Even before her tenure officially began, Emma was invited by Director Bellenger to contribute to the catalogue for a 2024-2025 traveling exhibition to the United States of Bernard van Orley’s seven-part tapestries series of the Battle of Pavia in 1525. The catalogue will be published by Rizzoli in March and AFC 2024 members at the $300 donor level or above will receive it as a gift.
Contemplating an end of year gift? Gifts are tax-deductible. You can also make a pledge for 2024.
AFC Fellow Emma de Jong at work in the Capodimonte print room. Major funding for the AFC Fellowship (2023 – 2024) is provided by the AFC with additional support from Michael and Nancy Vespoli.
Stay tuned for more information about Art & War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries exhibition and potential AFC trips and programs. The exhibition opens at the the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth: June 16, 2024 to September 15, 2024 and the de Young, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: October 19, 2024 to January 12, 2025. A third venue is to be announced.
Previous Fellow Updates
Dr. Caroline Paganussi completed her two-year appointment in August as the AFC Fellow (2021-2023) and has agreed to assist with short term special projects. With Director Bellenger, Caroline spoke on the BBC Radio 4 podcast Moving Pictures about Caravaggio’s Flagellation (1607), a jewel of Capodimonte’s collection. Caroline’s essay, “Style, Devotion, and the Living Body in Prospero Fontana’s Deposition,”is slated for publication in a forthcoming volume from Brill entitled The Mannerist Altarpiece, ca. 1500: Painting and Religious Experience in Sixteenth-Century Italy. Her article, “Containing a Jesuit Philippine Dream: The Manila-Bologna Maritime Trajectory of an Engraved Bamboo Container,” has been accepted for publication in the journal Eighteenth-Century Life (January 2025). She has organized two Italian Art Society-sponsored panels at the Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference in Chicago in March 2024 entitled “Women in Sculpture I & II.” In addition to presenting a paper on the anatomical wax sculptor, Anna Morandi Manzolini, Caroline is also in the early stages of producing an edited volume of the conference proceedings.
Dr. Claire Van Cleave is in discussions with a publisher to produce a book about the Farnese drawings at Capodimonte. The aim of Claire’s Senior AFC Fellowship (2020-2021) was to catalogue the 57 Farnese drawings held in Capodimonte’s Gabinetto dei Disegni e Stampe.
Dr. James Anno Associate Curator, European Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston served as the AFC’s first postdoctoral curatorial fellow (2017-2019). James recently acquired for the MFAH a masterpiece lifetime cast of Giambologna’s Flying Mercury bronze sculpture, the only one of its kind in North America. A version of this sculpture is also present in the Farnese Collection at Capodimonte. On January 17, 2024, James will deliver a lecture at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth entitled “Young Michelangelo: The Torment of Saint Anthony to the Doni Tondo.”
Naples in Paris: This “Rare Exhibition” Closes in January
In June, 26 AFC members traveled to Paris to attend the opening of Naples in Paris: The Louvre Hosts the Museo di Capodimonte – a brilliant exhibition organized by Director Bellenger. The Financial Times (FT Weekend) featured a lengthy story about this “rare exhibition” on June 28: “The tremendous exhibition Naples in Paris hosts the treasures of the Museo di Capodimonte, Europe’s least-known great museum, on the big stage of the French capital...many of the post-Farnese Neapolitan paintings function as magnificent, disruptive interlopers, disturbing the Louvre’s classical equilibrium, like flamboyant dignitaries from an exotic court.” The exhibition closes January 8, 2024 and we recommend you not miss it!
National Italian American
Foundation Gala
AFC Vice Chair and former president, Nancy Vespoli, and her husband, Mike, will represent the AFC at NIAF’s annual gala in Washington, D.C.. Italian Americans comprise the fifth largest ancestry group in the United States, numbering about 16.5 million people or 5.1% of the total population, according to the 2020 U.S.Census Bureau. Many Italian Americans trace their roots to the Naples region, but when they visit Italy they rarely venture south to Naples. The AFC hopes to raise awareness about the Capodimonte Museum to this important group.
Capodimonte under Construction
The Royal Palace of Capodimonte is about to undergo extensive renovations that will result in improved visitor services spaces, a visible storage gallery, updated climate control systems, and increased energy efficiency, among other facilities upgrades. The museum will remain open during construction, with the intermittent closure of certain galleries as the works progress.
We recommend visitors consult the museum’s website to find the most up-to-date visitor hours and accessible galleries.
The Bosco and the Stufa dei Fiori teahouse will remain open for the duration of the construction.
The Bosco of Capodimonte is one of the largest public parks in Italy. It spans 300 acres and contains more than 400 species of plants and flowers. It is open to the public every day. Check the Capodimonte website for current opening hours, including those for the Chapel of San Gennaro, recently reimagined by the architect Santiago Calatrava. Stroll or jog through the Bosco’s numerous trails, including the wellness path, or take in a game of soccer or rugby played by locals on the sports fields. You can also admire the historical trees and plants brought to Naples as early as the eighteenth century in the Sino-English Garden located next to the Stufa dei Fiori.
The Stufa dei Fiori had been used since 1843 as a greenhouse until it was turned into a teahouse and cafe in May 2022. It is the perfect place for a snack or coffee. The rotating, seasonal menu features daily specials using only the freshest local ingredients. Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Closed Wednesdays.
AFC advertisement for the Art & War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries exhibition as seen in the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF)’s Ambassador magazine.