Above: Guido Reni, Atalanta and Hippomenes (1620–1625), oil on canvas, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples.
AFC Summer Newsletter 2026
/AFC Summer Newsletter
Vesuvius from the lungomare, June 2026. Photograph by AFC Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow Gabriella Johnson.
Capodimonte Porcelain Wing Opens
Last summer, Architectural Digest featured famed exhibition designer Federico Forquet efforts to reimagine, alongside Capodimonte’s decorative arts curators, sixteen galleries to house the museum’s important collection of porcelain. Many of these fragile pieces were commissioned directly by the Bourbons, Joachim Murat (during the “French Decade,” which saw Napoleon’s appointment of French rulers), and the Savoy (after the unification of Italy in 1861). Capodimonte’s association with porcelain began in 1743, when King Charles of Bourbon and his wife Queen Maria Amalia of Saxony founded a royal porcelain factory to produce, exclusively at their request, pieces that ranged from tableware sets to complicated ensembles reproducing, in miniature, famous statues by antique and Old Master sculptors. The royal porcelain factory also created the hundreds of pieces of chinoiserie porcelain decoration mounted on the walls of Maria Amalia’s boudoir in the Bourbon palace at Portici, near Herculaneum, which has since been transferred to Capodimonte and is on display to visitors in the new porcelain wing.
“When people hear ‘porcelain,’ they think of a vase,” Forquet says. “But no—it’s a world. It’s an entire universe.”
Neapolitan ceramicist Diego Cibelli’s site-specific installation, La fragilità del bosco amato, at the entrance of the porcelain wing asks visitors to think about legacies of porcelain-making, as each fragile piece mounted to the wall in a grand ensemble borrows from the tradition of making biscuit porcelain — a notoriously difficult medium vulnerable to defects due to fluctuating pressure and temperatures during the firing process. Cibelli’s cornucopia of fantastic creatures, humans, and vegetation borrows forms from and critically engages with Capodimonte’s porcelain collection.
Neapolitan ceramicist Diego Cibelli’s site-specific installation, La fragilità del bosco amato, at the entrance of the porcelain wing asks visitors to think about legacies of porcelain-making, as each fragile piece mounted to the wall in a grand ensemble borrows from the tradition of making biscuit porcelain — a notoriously difficult medium vulnerable to defects due to fluctuating pressure and temperatures during the firing process. Cibelli’s cornucopia of fantastic creatures, humans, and vegetation borrows forms from and critically engages with Capodimonte’s porcelain collection.
Diego Cibelli, La fragilità del bosco amato, at the entrance to the porcelain galleries, first floor.
Cibelli’s dialogue with Capodimonte’s storied tradition of porcelain making continues inside the galleries in pieces that reimagine iconic eighteenth-century works. Drawing from Four Curly-haired Dogs made in King Ferdinand of Bourbon’s royal factory (1790-1800), Cibelli’s La favola inizia sempre con una metamorfosi (Fairytales always begin with metamorphosis, 2026) brings traditional biscuit porcelain into the realm of fantasy and imagination.
Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea, Four Curly-Haired Dogs, 1790-1800. Biscuit porcelain. Bourbon Collection, Capodimonte.
Diego Cibelli, Una favola inizia sempre con una metamorfosi, 2026. Biscuit porcelain. Capodimonte.
Click here to learn more about the new galleries.
Write to AFC Postdoctoral Fellow Gabriella Johnson at fellow@americanfriendsofcapodimonte.info to arrange a special visit!
Report from the Real Bosco di Capodimonte: AFC Senior Fellow Kimberly Schenck in Naples
“In spring 2026, I returned to the Capodimonte Museum as the AFC senior fellow to assist curator Vincenzo Stanziola with preserving the museum’s rich collection of prints and drawings. While last spring I worked primarily with the Carlo Firmian print collection, this year I focused on the Corpus Lanfranco—a collection of over 450 drawings mostly by the Baroque artist Giovanni Lanfranco (1582, Parma – 1647, Rome). Systematically I went through the portfolios repairing tears and removing sticky tape residues from the drawings, re-assembling any broken mats (passe-partout), and studying the papers and media.
I shared my study of Lanfranco’s drawing materials at the workshop Collezionismo, Materialità e Attribuzioni: Ricerche nel Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe di Capodimonte. Lanfranco used a range of papers in quality and color from beautifully made blue and white papers to brown and grey sheets riddled with numerous fiber clumps and bits of thread. Examining many drawings by one artist in one location is an exceptional treat. One of my favorite conservation projects was the repair of a black chalk drawing on blue paper. On the opposite side of the sheet lay sketches in corrosive iron gall ink that had penetrated to the front and caused major breaks in the paper. To prevent these breaks from worsening, I adhered narrow strips of thin Japanese tissue, tinted with color, to bridge the gaps. A drawing currently attributed to Giorgio Gandini del Grano from the Farnese Collection with similar ink problems required more extensive treatment.
Thank you to the AFC and Capodimonte Director Eike Schmidt.”
— Kimberly Schenck, Paper Conservator, AFC Senior Fellow
One of Kim’s projects, a Giovanni Lanfranco drawing in black chalk on blue paper, with sketches on the vero in corrosive ink.
Kim also restored a drawing attributed to Giorgio Gandini del Grando from the Farnese Collection.
**At the workshop, former AFC Fellow Emma de Jong also presented her research on the Firmian Collection.
Collection Highlight: Giacinto Gigante’s Chapel of San Gennaro
Giacinto Gigante, Chapel of San Gennaro [St Januarius], May 5, 1853. Watercolor. Naples, Museo di Capodimonte.
Commissioned by king Vittorio Emanuele II in 1860 and completed three years later, Giacinto Gigante’s grand-format watercolor bears an inscription at the bottom right that marks the cause for celebration – “S. Gennaro 5 maggio 1863” – one of the three feast days of Gennaro, martyred archbishop of Benevento and patron of Naples. Gigante, leader of the Scuola di Posillipo (School of Posillipo), turns his eye from the Gulf of Naples to the one of the most sacred sites in the city, the Cappella di San Gennaro (Chapel of St Januarius) in the Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta, which houses ampules of the saint’s blood.
Gigante’s painterly use of pure color becomes the pictorial language of the miraculous, as the archbishop raises a reliquary containing Gennaro’s liquefied blood – a sign of the saint’s continued intercession. This important moment is almost lost in the expanse of the crowd and grandeur of the chapel, heightened by a low vantage point near the entrance. As in Gigante’s landscapes, natural light floods the composition in sun-filled touches that transform the chapel into a space of jubilee. Brilliant white light enlivens the highly reflective silver statues of other city patrons lining the walls, creating a playful aesthetic dialogue between both plastic and living presence as they collectively witness the annual miracle.
This short excerpt is an English translation from one AFC Postdoctoral Fellow Gabriella Johnson’s contributions to a catalogue that will accompany a temporary exhibition of nineteenth-century painting opening at Capodimonte this fall.
Click here to learn more about Gabriella on the AFC website and follow her updates from Capodimonte on Instagram: @american_friends_capodimonte.
Updates from Former AFC Senior Fellow Claire Van Cleave (2020-2021)
The English edition of Claire’s book The Farnese Drawings Collection was published by Editori Paparo in Naples in June 2025. She has presented the book in New York, London, and at a very special event at the Palazzo Farnese, Rome in September 2025. This event, organised to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the École Française de Rome which has been located in the French embassy since its foundation, was overseen by departing Ambassador Martin Briens.
Claire presenting her book, The Farnese Drawings Collection, at the Palazzo Farnese, Rome
Claire reports, “It was thrilling to be able to introduce my book in the very palace where these drawings were kept and to speak out loud the names of the protagonists of their collecting who were once household names within those walls.”
Claire with former Ambassador Martin Briens, in his office in the Palazzo Farnese
AFC Spring Newsletter 2026
/AFC Spring Newsletter
Vesuvius from the lungomare, April 2026. Photograph by AFC Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow Gabriella Johnson.
AFC Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow Gabriella Johnson on the Move
In addition to being a key member of the team shaping the reinstallation of Capodimonte’s newly renovated galleries, Gabriella has been on the move! With generous support from the American Friends of Capodimonte, Gabriella traveled to
Maastricht to attend The European Fine Arts Fair (TEFAF), where she studied Old Master paintings, drawings, and sculptures available on the open market alongside other curators, scholars, and collectors. In Gallerie Canesso’s booth, she studied Giuseppe Bonito’s The Painter’s Studio, a pendant (or two paintings conceived as an iconographically or conceptually linked pair) to Bonito’s The Huntsmen in the Capodimonte collection.
Awarded the Renaissance Society of America-Samuel H. Kress Research Fellowship in Renaissance Art History, Gabriella also spent an exciting week in Sicily conducting onsite research for her forthcoming book on the Messinese painter Agostino Scilla. Both trips have enriched her ongoing projects at Capodimonte.
Click here to learn more about Gabriella on the AFC website and follow her updates from Capodimonte on Instagram: @american_friends_capodimonte.
Contemporary Voices at Capodimonte
Director Eike Schmidt discussing artist Emilio Isgrò’s reinterpretation of the famous Neapolitan song ‘O Sole Mio during the exhibition opening of Emilio Isgrò. Canto Napoli, Galleries 82, 84, and 85.
April saw the opening of two contemporary art exhibitions at Capodimonte: Emilio Isgrò. Canto Napoli (Emilio Isgrò. I Sing Naples) and I Segni dei Tempi. Carlo Maria Mariani a Capodimonte (Signs of the Times. Carlo Maria Mariani at Capodimonte).
Emilio Isgrò. Canto Napoli features the sheet music of popular Neapolitan songs, from the nineteenth century to Pino Daniele, reimagined through Isgrò’s technique of “cancellatura,” or “erasure.” His interventions, “erasing” notes, clefs, and lyrics in dense black strokes or obscuring them with swarms of insects, hover along the musical staff not as voids, but opportunities find new meanings in the familiar verses of famous songs. Since the 1960s, Isgrò has employed the poetic and pictorial language of “cancellatura” as a critical tool to reflect on language, memory, and the creation of knowledge.
In one stunning example (illustrated below), Isgrò “erases” nearly every word in Pino Daniele’s heartfelt hit, “Napule è,” except two poignant lines that describe the dynamic city as “tutto nu suonno” (all a dream) and “mille paure” (a thousand fears). The exhibition spans three galleries (82, 84, and 85) on the second floor.
I Segni dei Tempi. Carlo Maria Mariani a Capodimonte celebrates the donation of the exhibition’s titular work, I Segni dei Tempi (2019), to Capodimonte by the Carlo Maria Mariani Foundation in New York.
Carlo Maria Mariani, I Segni dei Tempi, 2019. Donated by the Carlo Maria Mariani Foundation in New York.
I Segni dei Tempi captures Mariani’s relationship with the past. Set against Renaissance painter Raphael’s frescoed sky in Rome’s Villa Farnesina, a figure dressed in ancient garb falls through conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp’s Bottle Rack, an everyday object Duchamp redefined as “art” through his notion of the “readymade.” Mariani’s recognizable artistic citations collapse Renaissance and twentieth-century temporalities in a single composition that explores how legacies of the past continue to shape the present.
The exhibition, occupying Gallery 6 on the first floor, continues the emphatic juxtaposition proposed by I Segni dei Tempi by putting Mariani’s works from private collections in dialogue with a bronze statuette of Hercules and porcelain from Capodimonte’s permanent collection.
Installation view during the opening of I Segni dei Tempi. Carlo Maria Mariani, Gallery 6, with Director Eike Schmidt and actress Paola De Crescenzo.
Collection Highlight: Giuseppe Recco’s Still Life with Game and Flowers
Giuseppe Recco, Still Life with Flowers and Game, 1671. Oil on canvas. Naples, Museo di Capodimonte. D’Avalos Bequest.
Neapolitan artist Giuseppe Recco’s Still Life with Flowers and Game is one of four still life paintings commissioned by the D’Avalos family in 1671. The cycle, exhibited together at Capodimonte, celebrates the abundance and variety of Campania’s produce, flowers, game, and marine life.
An impressive garland of flowers from all seasons decorates two ancient tombs positioned near a pile of hunted game. Below the flowers (freshly cut, but soon to fade!), a fragmented sculptural bust eroded by the passage of time heightens this elaborate memento mori, or reminder of the inevitability of death. The painting’s larger-than-life dimensions highlight the incredible variety of botanical Naples and its surrounding countryside.
Still life painting from the D’Avalos Collection at Capodimonte is the subject of a chapter in Gabriella’s forthcoming book about how the sea and its creatures shaped art, life, and culture in seventeenth-century Naples.
AFC Fellow Gabriella Johnson Teaches High Schoolers Visual Literacy
A ballerina from a Neapolitan fine arts high school (liceo artistico) discusses Caravaggio’s Flagellation with visitors.
Alongside Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Maria Laura Chiacchio, Gabriella has been teaching Neapolitan fine arts students visual literacy from the sensational works in Capodimonte’s collection. This public outreach program helps students understand how to “see” with a critical eye — an important skill to carry into our image-rich contemporary world. Each week, students learned how artistic forms generate meaning in discussion-based tours of the collection. At the end of the program, students became ambassadors in the galleries ready to spark engaging conversations with visitors and introduce the public to the splendors of Capodimonte.
Research in the Galleries: Colantonio’s St Jerome in his Study
Scholars, curators, and conservation scientists — at Capodimonte and based in Naples — gathered in Galleries 67 and 68 to share their focused research on the workshop practice of Colantonio (Niccolò Antonio), an important artist active in Naples between 1440-1460. A MacroXRF scanner, developed by the Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, produced a high-definition image of St Jerome in his Study using x-ray fluorescence to reconstruct the pigments of Colantonio’s palette, his development of the composition, and any modifications made during the painting process. Discussions from this collaborative workshop will deepen scholarly understanding of the use of oil paint in southern Italy. Colantonio developed his skill in oil paint through exposure to Flemish painters at the court of King René of Anjou.
The Delivery of Franciscan Rule and St Jerome in his Study by Colantonio, two masterpieces by the artist originally made for the church of San Lorenzo in Naples and now in the Capodimonte collection.
Director Eike Schmidt highlights the importance of this initiative: “[This workshop] brings research into the heart of the museum, in front of the work of art, to delve into the heart of artistic technique. It is a story that begins with Colantonio himself to underscore the importance of fifteenth-century southern painting and, in particular, of this leading figure. We will continue to create public outreach opportunities to introduce visitors, in an accessible way, to the multi-layered images generated by conservation research.”
Updates from Former AFC Fellow Caroline Paganussi (2021-2023)
Caroline Paganussi (AFC Fellow 2021-2023) has been appointed Lecturer in Art History at the University of Sydney. In this role, Caroline teaches courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate level in Art History, Museum & Heritage Studies, and Italian Studies. She also supervises postgraduate dissertations and serves as the Academic Supervisor for placements, assessing the work postgraduate students produce related to internships undertaken at museums, galleries, and heritage sites throughout Australia and around the world. Her most recent article, “From Manila to Bologna and Beyond: The Maritime Trajectory of an Eighteenth-Century Philippine Bamboo Container,” was published in the January 2026 issue of the journal Eighteenth-Century Life and relates to projects she worked on during her time as the AFC fellow. She is very pleased to have found a role that is both academic and embedded in the museum world!
David Drogin, Benjamin Weil, Caroline Paganussi, Nancy Turner, and Peter Weller are all smiles after presenting on the Italian Art Society-sponsored panel “Bologna c. 1400” at the Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America in February in San Francisco.
AFC Member Tours of Capodimonte
Gabriella is delighted to offer tours of Capodimonte and its surrounding park to AFC Members. Reach her at fellow@americanfriendsofcapodimonte.info.
AFC Fellow Gabriella Johnson with Rhode Island School of Design professor and printmaker Dan Wood after his visit to Capodimonte.
AFC Winter Newsletter 2025
/AFC Winter Newsletter
AFC Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow Dr. Gabriella Johnson Renewed for Another Year at Capodimonte
The 2025/2026 AFC Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellowship at Capodimonte for Gabriella Johnson has been renewed for an additional year. Her fellowship in Naples now will conclude at the end of June 2027. “Gabriella has accomplished so much in just four months in residence in Naples that her extension was unanimously approved by the AFC board,” said Curatorial Fellow mentor and AFC board member Gretchen Hirschauer. She will continue her work on the reinstallation of the first floor painting galleries, in addition to new ones coming her way.
Click here to learn more about Gabriella on the AFC website and follow her updates from Capodimonte on Instagram: @american_friends_capodimonte.
AFC Honorary President Dr. Giovanni Lombardi Sponsors New Acquisitions
Under the Art Bonus program and with AFC Honorary President Giovanni Lombardi’s support, three important eighteenth-century works enriched Capodimonte’s collections this past November.
One of the new acquisitions includes a portrait of Charles III of Bourbon by the German artist Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779). Fittingly presented to the Museum on November 3, the feast day of Saint Charles, the work depicts Capodimonte’s founder and former resident in his role as the King of Spain. His impressive blue and white sash of the Order of Charles III, studded with a brooch from the Royal Order of the Golden Fleece, reinforces the king’s chivalric honors, while inviting eyes, a rosy complexion, and smile ground the monarch in humanity. The painting’s intimate dimensions further humanize the new successor of the Spanish Crown.
Two additional works by Italian artist Giacomo Del Po join the collection: a preparatory drawing for the principal entrance to the monastery of San Gregorio Armeno in Naples and a small painting of Saint Dominick of Gesù Maria in the Battle of Prague against the protestants.
After acquiring the three works from a private collection, Lombardi told the public gathered at Capodimonte that his donation was principally for the city of Naples, and that he was especially pleased that Charles III of Bourbon, at least in his painted form, can return “home” to the palace. He added that he was drawn to the portrait’s intimate depiction of the powerful king – a notable rejection of the rigid grandeur typical of royal portraiture.
Celebrating the new acquisitions, Director Eike Schmidt noted: “Although the palace of Capodimonte dates to the eighteenth century and contains works of the period, missing were works by artists essential to the history of Neapolitan art, like Mengs and Del Po. In short, they are important additions to the collection.” Schmidt went on to note the innumerable benefits of the Art Bonus program, which ensures that the Italian government and businesses work in tandem to enrich the collections of Italian museums. Click here to learn more about Capodimonte’s new acquisitions!
AFC Fellow Gabriella Johnson at the University of Cambridge
In October, AFC Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Gabriella Johnson traveled to the United Kingdom to hold two seminars at the University of Cambridge. Professor Melissa Calaresu, cultural historian of eighteenth-century Naples (and the history of gelato!), invited Gabriella to present original research at Gonville and Caius College’s Seminar Series in Early Modern World History. Gabriella’s seminar explored how southern Italian painters drew inspiration from their artistic practice to solve mysteries about the origin and nature of marine fossils. In Gabriella’s second seminar, she joined the Cambridge faculty’s Mediterranean Studies Workshop, for which she shared an article in progress on how Mediterranean coral, fished from Sicilian seas and sculpted into complex works of art, became a symbol of the Spanish empire.
Gabriella returned to Naples filled with fresh ideas for her independent collections research at Capodimonte. She also gained an international perspective on curation, which she has applied to her work on the re-installation of the museum's first floor.
Simone Martini in the Spotlight
Capodimonte, alongside a conservation team from the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence, has begun to restore a fourteenth-century masterpiece from the collection: Simone Martini’s San Ludovico da Tolosa che incorona Roberto d’Angiò (St Louis of Toulouse Crowning Robert of Anjou), one of the artist’s greatest panel paintings. The project, which marks the work’s first restoration in more than sixty-five years, is underway in Gallery 66 on the second floor of the museum. Over six months, visitors will see the team restoring the structural integrity of the painting’s wooden support and predella – a difficult project, as the back of Martini’s work is decorated with blue fleurs-de-lis representing the Neapolitan branch of the French Capetian dynasty.
Martini’s altarpiece depicts Saint Louis, an Angevin prince who renounced the throne to embrace a religious life in the Franciscan Order. Crowned by heavenly angels, Saint Louis passes his earthly crown of the Kingdom of Naples to his brother Robert kneeling in veneration. Robes trimmed with gold leaf envelop Louis’s simple Franciscan vestments, visually suggesting that the dynasty – and Robert as successor – rules by divine right.
Periods in Dialogue at Capodimonte
New exhibitions at Capodimonte co-curated by Director Eike Schmidt put contemporary art in dialogue with some of the Museum’s most sensational masterpieces.
Nicola Samorì: Classical Collapse, an exhibition hosted by Capodimonte and the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, serves as a bridge between northern and southern Italy and examines how contemporary artists reinvent traditions inherited from a storied past. Samorì’s process of visual revision uses Old Master paintings as sites of productive tension to understand the role of tradition and human experience in the contemporary world. Highlights from the Bourbon Collection at Capodimonte, like Jusepe de Ribera and Luca Giordano’s paintings of Apollo and Marsyas introduce visitors to these complex themes that span from the seventeenth century to present day. Click to read more about the exhibition.
In a similar vein, Bertozzi & Casoni: Metamorfosi playfully conflates past and present in an exhibition of polychrome ceramics installed throughout the Bourbon royal apartments. Hyper-realistic ceramic forms initiate unexpected and surprising material conversations with the decorative arts, furniture, carriages, sculpture, paintings, and ancient mosaic floor of Roman emperor Tiberius’s villa in Capri that fill Capodimonte’s former living spaces. Click to read more about the exhibition.
Another installation was mounted in honor of celebrated Neapolitan photographer Mimmo Jodice, who sadly passed in November. A selection of photographs from Jodice’s Transiti (Transit) series reinforce the common humanity of the Renaissance and Baroque paintings at Capodimonte. Jodice’s photographs from the streets of Naples collapse time, suggesting that the expressions, features, and wrinkles of the figures that appear in Old Master paintings are our own. Jodice, a great supporter of Capodimonte, also founded a center for photography in the Bosco. Click to learn more about Jodice’s legacy.
AFC Member Tours of Capodimonte
Since her arrival on September 1, Gabriella has been welcoming AFC Members to Capodimonte for tours of the Museum and Royal Park. Write to her at fellow@americanfriendsofcapodimonte.info to organize a visit.
AFC Fall Newsletter 2025
/AFC Fall Newsletter
Welcome from AFC Acting President Nancy Vespoli
Our recent AFC Trip to Naples was a rewarding time to connect with the Board and renew our mission to build awareness in the English-speaking world of Capodimonte, one of Europe's greatest museums. Annual trips are a central part of our cultural exchange. Visiting the American Consulate in Naples and our special tours of Capodimonte strengthen the bonds between Italy and the United States. I enthusiastically thank Capodimonte Director Eike Schmidt and AFC Honorary President Dottore Giovanni Lombardi for welcoming us to Naples and wholeheartedly supporting our mission.
Fellowships are a cornerstone of the AFC. We have funded four Postdoctoral Fellows with the arrival of Gabriella Johnson and two Senior Fellows since the organization was founded ten years ago. After three years of service, our former AFC President Cristina Del Sesto has resigned. Her work with the AFC was recently celebrated in the Italian American magazine, Fra Noi, linked here and at the bottom of the newsletter. I look forward to continuing to advance the AFC mission.
AFC Acting President Nancy Vespoli discussing a restored painting at Capodimonte with Dr. Scott Rocklage.
New AFC Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Gabriella Johnson, Begins Tenure at Capodimonte
We are delighted to welcome our new AFC Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, Dr. Gabriella Johnson, to the Museum and Royal Park at Capodimonte. A specialist of the seventeenth-century art and material culture of southern Italy, Gabriella has already begun to work closely with the curatorial team. Most recently, Gabriella helped install a special loan from the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Lorenzo Lotto’s Portrait of Lucina Brembati, in the galleries as part of Capodimonte’s “Guest” series – a program that initiates a dialogue between highlights from Capodimonte’s historic collections and a masterpiece from another museum. In addition to learning the practicalities of installing a loaned painting, Gabriella also translated the interpretive wall text, making the thoughtful pairing of portraits by Lotto and Emilian artist Parmigianino accessible to English-speaking visitors.
Gabriella’s fellowship coincides with a critical moment for Capodimonte, as the curatorial team plans a museum-wide reinstallation of the collection. This undertaking cuts across all museum specialties to find new ways to interpret the rich collection, which spans from the Middle Ages to the present. Gabriella has already begun to assist with the initiative for the newly renovated first floor.
In addition to curatorial work, Gabriella continues to advance her own research on the Mediterranean’s impact on seventeenth-century art-making in Naples. Using Giuseppe Recco’s Still Life with Fish and Turtles from the D’Avalos Collection at Capodimonte as her primary case study, Gabriella’s research broadens conventional interpretations of still life in Naples. As a specialist of Neapolitan art, Gabriella is certainly in the right place!
Click here to learn more about Gabriella on the AFC website and follow her updates from Capodimonte on Instagram: @american_friends_capodimonte.
The AFC has Landed in Naples!
The AFC Board and fellow travellers with Director Eike Schmidt and AFC Fellows Gabriella Johnson and Emma de Jong at the Belvedere Fountain, September 20, 2025.
Board members and travellers of the American Friends of Capodimonte spent four exciting days in Naples in the company of current Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow Dr. Gabriella Johnson and outgoing Fellow Emma de Jong.
At the American Consulate, located in seaside Mergellina, the group enjoyed coffee and famous fiocchi di neve pastries from Pasticceria Poppella as they got to know Gabriella and their gracious host, US Consul General Terrence Flynn. A private tour of the historic Teatro San Carlo, complete with a view from the Bourbon opera house’s royal box, led to a spectacular evening dining on the terrace of AFC Honorary President Dottore Giovanni Lombardi’s home
The next day was similarly full of activity. The group spent the morning visiting the recently opened Hellenistic necropolis at the Ipogeo dei Cristallini and learning about the architecture of the Sanità, a neighborhood in Naples known for its complex and multi-layered history. Before lunch, the travellers stepped again into Magna Graecia at the Archeological Museum (MANN) to explore the material culture of excavations in the Greek-speaking regions of Southern Italy.
A full day at Capodimonte was made memorable by Director Eike Schmidt’s tour of galleries freshly renovated to house the museum’s impressive porcelain collection, close looking in the cabinet of prints and drawings with Emma, an engaging gallery talk of Capodimonte masterpieces with Gabriella (including Caravaggio’s Ecce Homo on loan to the museum), and a special look at painting restorations with conservator Alessia Zaccaria. Lunch in the company of Director Schmidt at the scenic Giardino Torre, a restaurant nestled in the Bosco di Capodimonte that serves dishes inspired by eighteenth-century Neapolitan gastronomy, capped the rewarding day.
A performance of Tosca featuring Neapolitan soprano Anna Pirozzi and an evening aperitivo at Gambrinus gave the group a proper send-off, as they said farewell until next time. To learn more about the exciting opportunities offered by an AFC membership, click here.
Below Dr. Gabriella Johnson discusses the Cassetta Farnese with AFC travelers and board members.
National Gallery of Art, Washington Visit with AFC Postdoctoral Fellow Gabriella Johnson and AFC Secretary and Curator Gretchen Hirschauer
Over the summer, AFC Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow Gabriella Johnson and AFC Secretary and curator Gretchen Hirschauer visited the conservation laboratory at the National Gallery. Alongside conservator Joanna Dunn and curator Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, Gabriella and Gretchen studied the Triumph of Galatea, a sensational painting that depicts the celebratory procession of the sea nymph Galatea after protecting her lover Acis from the jealous rage of the cyclops Polyphemus. The group learned how passages of the sky, conch, and swimming dolphins were damaged during a WWII bombardment in England. Technical and formal study of the central figure of Galatea, especially her active hands, the virtuosity of her translucent drapery, and sensitivity to the female body, suggest that the hands of two artists are responsible for the painting. Bernardo Cavallino likely painted the musical tritons, while Artemisia Gentileschi – who frequently collaborated with her fellow Neapolitan painters – painted the triumphal Galatea. Could a third hand be responsible for the coral throne and conch?
Bernardo Cavallino and Artemisia Gentileschi (?), Triumph of Galatea, c.1650. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington.
An Update from the Cabinet of Prints and Drawings by Outgoing AFC Fellow Emma de Jong
As the end of my fellowship nears, I am now directing my focus on writing down my research findings in a series of articles. For the last two years I have been studying the eighteenth century print collection of the Habsburg diplomat Carlo Firmian. After Firmian’s death in 1782, his collection was bought by the Bourbon royal family of Naples. Since then it has been housed in several different palaces in Naples. Reconstructing the history of the collection has led me to do research at the Museo Archeologico, the Archivio di Stato and the Biblioteca Nazionale in Naples, where I have tracked down inventories and missing books. A personal highlight was my visit to the print collection of pope Benedict XIVth, today kept in the Pinacoteca of Bologna. Firmian bought several prints from this collection, which are identifiable by the pope’s collector’s mark. Together with the Bolognese curator, I worked out that most of these had been sold off because they were duplicates. By publishing my research in well-read academic journals, I hope to generate new interest in the collection, so that the Capodimonte print room may welcome more visiting scholars in the future.
In addition to my publishing endeavours, I am also finishing up the catalogue of the Dutch and Flemish prints in the collection, of which there are circa 2000. A few more trips to the Hertziana art history library in Rome are necessary to finish this project. Having a complete and accurate catalogue will help future visitors navigate the collection.
Meanwhile, the prints and drawings cabinet is full of activity as all artworks are being photographed as part of a large digitization project. Their online presence will help new people discover the paper treasures kept at Capodimonte. The print room is also seeing some renovation works, with new overhead lighting being installed throughout.
Former AFC President Cristina Del Sesto Featured in Fra Noi
Former AFC President Cristina Del Sesto was featured in the Italian American magazine Fra Noi for her work increasing stateside awareness of Capodimonte, “Europe’s least-known great museum.” Read her full interview here, where she outlines the growth and accomplishments of the organization, which has supported four Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellows and two Senior Fellows since its inception. Congratulations, Cristina!
Capodimonte Director Eike Schmidt Featured in the Art Newspaper
Taking leadership of Capodimonte in 2024, Director Schmidt is celebrated as a one of the most unpredictable and successful museum directors in recent history. He describes the position as “the fulfilment of a dream,” and has innovative plans to bring more visitors to Capodimonte. Click here to read more about Director Schmidt.
Former AFC President Cristina Del Sesto Featured in Fra Noi
/Former AFC President Cristina Del Sesto was featured in the Italian-American Magazine Fra Noi for her work increasing Stateside awareness of Capodimonte, “Europe’s least-known great museum.” Read her full interview here, where she outlines the growth and accomplishments of the organization, which has supported four Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellows and two Senior Fellows since its inception. Congratulations, Cristina!
AFC Summer Newsletter
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View of the newly reopened historic Giardino dei Principi (Garden of the Princes) in the Capodimonte Park. In the background a view of Vesuvius.
AFC travelers with US Ambassador Campbell Bauer at the American Embassy in Paris. June, 2023.
A Farewell from AFC President Cristina Del Sesto
Dear AFC Friends,
Creating something out of nothing is a rare experience. American Friends of Capodimonte was just a far fetched idea in the beginning. Even before his publicly announced appointment as the Director of the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in November 2015, Sylvain Bellenger invited several Americans to build a nonprofit to support a museum that few of us had heard of.
Tasked by AFC co-founder and president Vincent Buonanno to assess Capodimonte’s needs and what this nonprofit might be able to do, I went to Naples in early 2016. I was given full creative license to invent whatever I thought would be possible and useful.
AFC travelers on their Washington DC trip with National Gallery of Art curator and AFC board member Gretchen Hirschauer, January 2023.
Looking at the landscape of other “Friends” groups and the limited time and resources with which we were starting, we had to be scrappy to launch. We used our early funds to invest in a postdoctoral curator; this offered an economical way to make a significant impact quickly. Recruitment of James Anno into this position made the AFC's mission become a reality.
My next initiative was board development; to build upon a solid foundation of the three initial board members would anchor AFC for future growth. I turned to friends and friends of friends. Claire Van Cleave joined the board as did Nancy Vespoli and eventually Henrietta Hakes, Benjamin Patton, Victoria Gath, Gretchen Hirschauer and, most recently, Mary Ellen Countryman. After two terms, Vincent stepped down as president and Nancy stepped into the role and made a transformational gift, as Vin had done in years prior. She also brought with her a posse of devoted and generous friends who joined the board and went on the AFC trips: Mary Humenansky, Bart Livolsi, and Francis Prins. Nancy stepped down after two terms and I stepped up into the position of president of the board. To acknowledge his transformational gift of housing for our AFC Fellows, Dr. Giovanni Lombardi was invited to join the AFC as Honorary President.
The AFC at the Louvre for the Naples in Paris exhibition with Capodimonte Director Sylvain Bellenger. June 2023.
Since the AFC’s founding ten years ago there have been three post-doctoral AFC Fellows and two Senior Fellows. All have exceeded expectations in bringing awareness to an English-speaking audience about Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte through scholarship. There have also been art trips with Directors Bellenger and Eike Schmidt (appointed in January 2025), loans to U.S. museums and two noteworthy U.S. traveling exhibitions: Flesh & Blood: Italian Masterpieces from the Capodimonte Collection (2020) and Art & War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries (2024/2025), which just closed at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
The AFC in front of the Battle of Pavia Tapestries in San Francisco with Capodimonte Director Eike Schmidt. October 2024.
Creating wider public access to the Capodimonte Museum has been a privilege and an opportunity of a lifetime. Together, we have had a meaningful purpose by spotlighting this international gem of a fine arts museum. I owe my deepest gratitude to all of you who have shared my passion and especially my fellow board members past and present. Before Founder’s Syndrome sets in, I’ve resigned. The board is strong and it is time for someone else to lead the charge with fresh ideas and renewed energy. Nancy Vespoli has graciously agreed to serve as Acting President supported by a very active executive board: Program Director James Anno, Treasurer ME Countryman, and Secretary Gretchen Hirschauer.
Best wishes for the summer! Passa una bella estate!
Kimberly Schenck’s Senior Fellowship
AFC Fellows Emma de Jong and Kimberly Schenck with an album from the Carlo Firmian Collection.
Rembrandt prints mounted on paper and viewed in transmitted light.
For the month of April, I had the wonderful experience of assisting AFC fellow Emma de Jong and Capodimonte curator Vincenzo Stanziola in the department of prints and drawings. Much of my time was spent with Emma examining albums of prints in the collection of Carlo Firmian (1718-1782). One of our tasks was to look carefully at the structure of bound and unbound albums for clues of their production and previous lives. When viewing the prints and mounting papers in transmitted light, we sometimes found watermarks or designs imparted to the sheets from the papermaking screen. One watermark found in many mounting papers contains the letters BMO, an abbreviation of Bergamo, a historic papermaking center not far from Milan where the collection was mounted in the eighteenth century.
Using my skills as a paper conservator to help the department was gratifying. I constructed folders, applied paper hinges to prints, and repaired tears in prints and drawings. Currently I am preparing an overview of my observations on the state of preservation of the Firmian Collection and making suggestions for improvements in its care.
Drawings by Giovanni Lanfranco on blue and gray papers.
My final day was spent viewing drawings by Giovanni Lanfranco (1582-1647). The Capodimonte Museum has rich holdings in the drawings of this Baroque master, especially of working sketches on blue and gray papers, an interest of mine. By Lanfranco’s time, colored papers were popular among artists for drawing in black and white chalks as the paper color acted as a middle tone for chiaroscuro effects. Also, the surface of these textured papers provided the necessary “tooth” to hold the powdery media.
Thank you for this amazing opportunity.
Kimberly Schenck, 2025 AFC Senior Fellow
American Friends Visit Capodimonte
Members of the AFC may request a tour of the Capodimonte Museum and Park from our AFC fellow (subject to availability). Please reach out to our fellow if you are planning a trip to Naples: fellow@americanfriendsofcapodimonte.info
AFC members from Richmond, VA, toured the galleries with Emma.
AFC members from New York enjoyed a private visit of the CHiesa di San Gennaro in the Capodimonte Bosco with Emma.
Senior Fellow Claire Van Cleave’s Farnese Drawings Book Published
AFC’s ‘20-’21 senior fellow Claire Van Cleave has published her book on Capodimonte’s collection of the Farnese drawings, including works by Parmigianino and Sofonisba Anguissola. At its peak, the Farnese collection included over 850 works on paper, but today only 57 drawings with a Farnese provenance are identifiable in Capodimonte’s collections. Claire began her research during her AFC fellowship. More information can be found on the publisher’s website.
You can follow Claire’s promotional events via a dedicated Instagram page: farnese_drawings
AFC Fellow Emma de Jong Attends Seminar on Print Curation
Printing an etching at Pauper’s Press
Viewing prints at the Welcome Collection
The British Museum Prints and Drawings Room
From March 19 to 26 Emma attended a seminar for ten young curators of prints, organized by Print Quarterly and fully funded by the Getty Paper Project. Three days were spent in London, visiting the Welcome Collection, the British Museum, and the private collection of Katrin Bellinger-Henkel. They had a workshop in etching and linocut at Pauper’s Press and attended the opening of the London Print Fair. In Paris, the group visited the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Rothschild Collection at the Louvre, Ecole des Beaux Arts, and Fondation Custodia. In the evenings they were invited to the openings of the Salon du Dessin, the Paris Print Fair, and an exclusive reception at the Musée de Cluny.
The Louvre Prints and Drawings Room
Anatomical prints at the Ecole des Beaux Arts
Japanese prints at the Bibliothèque Nationale
Capodimonte featured in The Wall Street Journal article
“Naples doesn’t really do small,”
explained Sylvain Bellenger, former director of Museo di Capodimonte, a museum housed in a massive pink and gray palace [...] Even larger than the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, the Museo di Capodimonte is currently undergoing renovations — but still has 50 galleries containing enough masterpieces by the likes of Masaccio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, and Correggio to merit repeat visits."
Excerpt taken from ‘A Savvy Travelers Guide to Italy’s Other Great Art City’ in The Wall Street Journal from May 30.
Next stop: Pavia. Capodimonte Tapestries Exhibition Will Travel to the Pavia Battle Site for 500th Anniversary
After Fort Worth, San Francisco and Houston, Capodimonte’s seven tapestries of The Battle of Pavia will be travelling to the city where the depicted battle took place in five hundred years ago. The exhibition Pavia 1525: the City, the Arts, the Battle will be on view at the Civic Museums of the Visconti Castle from September 18, 2025 to January 11, 2026. Click here for more information.
The exhibition catalogue, with an essay by AFC fellow Emma de Jong, can be ordered from the publisher.
Gabriella L. Johnson Named American Friends of Capodimonte Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow
/American Friends of Capodimonte is pleased to announce the appointment of Gabriella L. Johnson as the fourth AFC Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow. Her ten-month fellowship begins September 1, 2025. She will be mentored by Gretchen Hirschauer, AFC board member and former curator of Italian and Spanish Paintings at the National Gallery of Art.
“On behalf of the AFC Board I would like to thank AFC Program Director, James Anno, and AFC Secretary, Gretchen Hirschauer for conducting yet another academically rigorous search process,” AFC President Cristina Del Sesto said. “We welcome Gabriella and we are certain that her fascination with Naples and the uncommon field of aquatic nature art will bring a new focus to coral, shells and marine fossils in the collection of Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, whether painted or real.”
“We are very pleased to have Gabriella Johnson join us as the next AFC Post-Doctoral Fellow. She will be a great addition to our research staff and we look forward to drawing on her in-depth knowledge of Neapolitan art and sea culture.”
Gabriella Johnson, a native of Atlantic City, New Jersey, specializes in the seventeenth-century art and material culture of southern Italy. Her dissertation, Galatea’s Realm: The Art of Coral, Shells, and Marine Fossils in Early Modern Sicily, Naples, and the Maltese Islands, studies how humans related to and understood aquatic nature through artmaking over the course of the seventeenth century. Johnson will receive her Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Delaware in June 2025. Professor Emeritus David M. Stone is her Ph.D. advisor.
Johnson’s research has been generously supported by fellowships at the American Academy in Rome (Samuel H. Kress Foundation/Marian and Andrew Heiskell Rome Prize Fellow, 2023-24), the Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities - “La Capraia” in Naples (Research Resident, 2022-23), and the Delaware Public Humanities Institute (2021). She was also awarded a Samuel H. Kress Research Fellowship in Renaissance Art History by the Renaissance Society of America (2025) to support research on the Sicilian painter Agostino Scilla.
Johnson received an M.A. in Art History from the University of Delaware in 2017 and a B.A. in Art History and Italian Studies from Colby College in 2014. An undergraduate semester at Trinity College’s Rome Campus sealed her interest in seventeenth-century Italian art.
“I am excited to work with the rich and historic collections at Capodimonte,” Johnson says. “Naples was never on the periphery of artistic achievement, but very much an important and original chapter in the history of Italian art. The fellowship is a great opportunity to enrich the public’s understanding of southern Italian art, especially within Italian diaspora communities.”
Special Edition: Honoring Director Emeritus Sylvain Bellenger
/Battle of Pavia February 24, 1525
AFC at the Louvre, 2023.
Dear AFC Friends,
It has been ten years, five AFC Fellows, three AFC presidents, and two Capodimonte Museum directors since the AFC’s inception. It all began with Director Emeritus Sylvain Bellenger’s vision.
Introducing the American public to Capodimonte Museum was a top priority during Bellenger’s tenure from 2015 to 2023 and he wanted an American Friends nonprofit group formed to help him do that. He was tireless in his enthusiasm and his insistence that the museum deserved to be recognized as one of the most important in Europe with a collection that is larger and as good as or better than the Uffizi’s. He welcomed Americans and foreigners alike and made the museum accessible to all for the first time with English wall text.
AFC President Cristina Del Sesto with Sylvain Bellenger and AFC Fellow Caroline Paganussi in Paris, 2023.
Museum attendance grew exponentially. Well-planned and scholarly international exhibitions with Bellenger’s signature originality traveled from Hong Kong to Paris to United States, among other places. He has left no doubt that Capodimonte is magnificent and worthy of worldwide attention.
The last exhibition he organized while Director of Capodimonte is Art and War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries. One art critic described the tapestries as Renaissance masterpieces that were among the most remarkable works of art ever created. The exhibition opened at the Kimbell Art Museum last June and went on to the de Young/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Its final stop is the museum of Fine Arts Houston. It opens March 2 and runs through May 26.
Museum attendance grew exponentially. Well-planned and scholarly international exhibitions with Bellenger’s signature originality traveled from Hong Kong to Paris to United States, among other places. He has left no doubt that Capodimonte is magnificent and worthy of worldwide attention.
The last exhibition he organized while Director of Capodimonte is Art and War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries. One art critic described the tapestries as Renaissance masterpieces that were among the most remarkable works of art ever created. The exhibition opened at the Kimbell Art Museum last June and went on to the de Young/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Its final stop is the museum of Fine Arts Houston. It opens March 2 and runs through May 26.
It is fitting that we celebrate Director Emeritus Bellenger on the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Pavia. This Frenchman has won the battle for hearts and minds of Neapolitans, Italians and Americans alike. He has created an indelible mark on Capodimonte Museum and on those of us who were fortunate enough to visit with him at the museum or one of the exhibitions he curated.
This newsletter is devoted to his legacy, which includes the AFC itself and the AFC Fellows. It has been an honor of a lifetime to have worked with Sylvain and to witness him realizing the dream of what could be for Museo e il Bosco di Capodimonte.
Cristina Del Sesto, AFC President
AFC Board
Giovanni Lombardi, Honorary President; Nancy Vespoli, Vice Chair; Vincent Buonanno, Founder and President Emeritus; James Anno, Program Director; Mary Ellen Countryman, Treasurer: Gretchen Hirschauer, Secretary; Tory Gath; Henrietta Hakes; Bartley Livolsi; and Francis Prins
Interview with Sylvain Bellenger
Q: Sylvain, the question everyone has for you is how and why — out of all the objects in Capodimonte's collection that are smaller in size and would have been much easier to loan — did you conceive of the Battle of Pavia tapestries exhibition for the U.S.?
Bellenger: The answer is easy. First, in considering the importance of the renovation work at Capodimonte that would take for at least two years, I had planned to close Capodimonte and had planned and organized exhibitions of the collection as an international promotion of the museum before the grand reopening of the palace. The new minister of culture decided differently, and although visiting Capodimonte during the renovation is difficult and frustrating, he didn’t want to close the museum. However, since the Louvre exhibition and this one were planned so far ahead of time, they had to go on.
Q: Why the tapestries?
Bellenger: Because Capodimonte is not only a big, rich and important pinacoteca, but also a great place for porcelain and decorative art in general, including this extremely important set of Flemish tapestries that were commissioned for Charles V of Habsburg. Another motivating factor was the need to restore the tapestries and the exhibition made funding that possible. Finally, 2025 is the 500 anniversary of the Battle of Pavia.
“Thanks to Sylvain Bellenger’s vision, the recovery of the Royal Park of Capodimonte as a safe haven for family outings and a physical activity has received important impulses, and the installation of a new, far more efficient HVAC system in the museum has commenced. It is our goal to continue and further these projects, integrating them with many others.”
Watch Director Emeritus Sylvain Bellenger Give a Tour of the Pavia Tapestries to AFC Members in Naples
A Word from Vincent Buonanno, AFC Founder and President Emeritus
Ten years ago, Sylvain disclosed to me and fellow Art Institute patron Julius Lewis that he planned to leave The Art Institute of Chicago to accept the directorship of the Capodimonte Museum in Naples. He asked us to form a nonprofit to support his new Italian endeavor.
American Friends of Capodimonte Founder Vincent Buonanno with Amici di Capodimonte President Errico di Lorenzo, 2019
We modestly began to plan a way to build new cross-Atlantic cultural links and introduce art-loving Americans to Naples and the Capodimonte, one of the three largest museums in Italy. This newly formed group, to be known as the American Friends of Capodimonte, achieved 501 c 3 status to even out the tax- deductible playing field with other not-for-profits.
After meeting with Sylvain, Cristina Del Sesto determined that our mission would be to sponsor a postdoctoral curatorial fellow to work at Capodimonte. By 2016, we had selected James Anno. Annual trips were planned to fund the fellowship and since then we have funded five AFC fellows and we are soon to announce our sixth.
Sylvain’s stellar eight years at Capodimonte are well known to us. There have been a series of brilliant exhibitions, at home and away; a reconfiguration of the museum’s vast assets; and the articulation of a plan for the restoration of the museum and its grounds.
In the meantime, the AFC board has grown from four to eleven members and we’ve had three presidents. I’d like to thank all of those that have served and are serving on the AFC board: Cristina Del Sesto (President), Nancy Vespoli, (Vice Chair and former President), James Anno (Program Director), Gretchen Hirschauer (Secretary), Mary Ellen Countryman (Treasurer), Victoria Gath, Henrietta Hakes, Bartley Livolsi, Francis Prins, and additionally the late Julius Lewis (Co-Founder), Laurie Bay (Founding Board Member), Mary Humenansky (Former Board Member), Ben Patton (Former Board Member), as well as our two Honorary Chairmen: Giovanni Lombardi and Maestro Riccardo Muti.
The trips, the achievements, the press, the enthusiasm; all have been remarkable. The most exciting recent events were Naples a Paris, an extraordinary loan exhibition at the Louvre of more than 50 canvases, which many of us witnessed and enjoyed, and the Pavia Tapestries exhibition which has traveled to Fort Worth, San Francisco, and will soon open in Houston. Sylvain organized it all.
I am grateful to Sylvain who inspired us in Chicago to form our organization, which carries on supporting the museum through the work of its fellows and continuously introduces more English-speakers to the wonderful collections of Capodimonte. The AFC will be a long-lasting part of Sylvain’s legacy in Naples.
Vincent J. Buonanno, AFC Co-Founder and President Emeritus
The Battle of Pavia was fought on February 24, 1525 and changed the course of European history.
“The Battle of Pavia tapestries are, quite simply, one of the most important works of art created in northern Europe during the sixteenth century. If they had been made in fresco, they would be world renowned, but as tapestries they have been overlooked. The opportunity to view them on this US tour is unprecedented and not to be missed.”
A Word from Nancy Vespoli, AFC Vice Chair
I had the honor of getting to know Director Bellenger during my four-year tenure as AFC President. He is the most creative person I have ever met. He came to Capodimonte thinking he would be running a fine arts museum, but in addition to inheriting the management of the Royal Palace, he became responsible for one of the largest parks in Italy, along with its 17 outbuildings. Moreover, everything needed a lot of work.
When my husband, Mike, and I visited Capodimonte, Director Bellenger first took us to see the Belvedere fountain. Under his direction over a ton of limescale deposits had been removed. Nearby, twenty-foot high weeds had been trimmed to reveal the extraordinary view of the Bay of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius. At that point, he had been in charge for just a matter of months. These two acts are representative of the decisive and constant improvements Director Bellenger implemented on a daily basis over the course of his eight years running the museum and the royal park, and curating significant exhibitions around the world.
Among his triumphs was the 2023 exhibition Naples a Paris at the Louvre. While Capodimonte was being overhauled, Sylvain negotiated with the Louvre to host an exhibition in the iconic Grande Galerie of sixty Capodimonte masterpieces, rather than putting them into storage. I can go on and on about his accomplishments, including the addition of two restaurants in the grounds, the San Gennaro chapel renovation by Calatrava, and the numerous other exhibitions which he curated while running the museum and grounds as its Director. For our AFC Fellows, it was a singular experience to be a part of the transformation.
Although I am sure Director Bellenger is greatly missed at Capodimonte, he created a lasting legacy by setting it on a trajectory to reclaim its position as one of the greatest urban parks and museums in all of Italy.
Nancy Vespoli, AFC Vice Chair and Former President
AFC Members were shown around the Battle of Pavia tapestries exhibition in San Francisco by AFC fellow Emma de Jong and AFC Program Director and former fellow James Anno, 2024.
A Word from James Anno, AFC Program Director
AFC Program Director working on installation of the Pavia Tapestries exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. It opens March 2 and runs through May 26.
Serving at Capodimonte with Sylvain Bellenger remains a watershed experience in my professional life. When I arrived to the museum, my eyes were opened to the immense beauty of the royal palace and the collection. I also perceived the immense challenges ahead not only for Dir. Bellenger, but for me as well. I studied Dir. Bellenger in detail, watching and taking notes as he overcame one obstacle after another. His resilience, clarity of vision, creative spirit, and art historical acumen served as pillars that guided how I sought to make meaningful contributions to the museum.
I had a front row seat to observe and collaborate with Dir. Bellenger in the early years of his tenure. In moments of great trial and uncertainty, Dir. Bellenger always reminded me that the most simple of tasks are impossible in Naples, but miracles happen every day. It is true! Those words of encouragement continue to guide me in the present. His fortitude and commitment to the mission remain exemplary in my professional experience.
My time at Capodimonte bears fruit in the present. Since my arrival in 2019 to The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, I have curated two exhibitions with Dir. Bellenger: Portrait of Courage: Gentileschi, Wiley, and the Story of Judith (2023) and now Knights in Shining Armor: The Pavia Tapestries (2025). Our continued collaboration is a testament to the importance of the AFC Fellowship and the AFC’s enduring contribution to the cultural diplomacy between Italy and the United States.
Thank you, Sylvain, for your myriad accomplishments, years of service and leadership, and untold contributions to Capodimonte and the city of Naples
James P. Anno, AFC Program Director and ‘17-’19 AFC fellow
The AFC Serves One of Europe’s Greatest Museums
The American Friends of Capodimonte (AFC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to build awareness in the English-speaking world of one of Europe’s greatest museums. Thanks to our Capodimonte Fellowships, we are the first and only American organization to place talented, young American art historians directly inside an Italian museum. Our members and donors enjoy private tours, events, and dinners in the Museum and Royal Park. When works from the Capodimonte collection travel to America, we invite all who contribute to join us for events and exhibitions. For more information, check out our website: https://www.americanfriendsofcapodimonte.info/
AFC Newsletter Winter 2025
/The AFC Spring Newsletter
A Word From the AFC President
Dear American Friends of Capodimonte,
Buon Anno! This edition is devoted to updates about our five AFC Fellows: James Anno, Claire Van Cleave, Caroline Paganussi, Emma de Jong, and our new Senior Fellow Kimberly Schenck. Schenck will be visiting Capodimonte for the month of April to lend her paper conservation expertise to the study and care of the Capodimonte drawings and prints collection. Our specially commissioned video about the paper collections at Capodimonte provides an insight into the art works she will be advising on.
Schenck recently retired from the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, where she served as Head of Paper Conservation since 2006. She has contributed to numerous exhibition catalogues and has published articles on drawings by Raphael, Giorgio Vasari's Libro de' Disegni, and engravings by Hendrick Goltzius, among others.
Schenck will be hosted at the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte by Dr. Vincenzo Stanziola, Curator of Capodimonte's Gabinetto dei Desegni e delle Stampe (GDS). The GDS holds more than 30.000 works on paper, including works by Andrea Mantegna, Albrecht Dürer, and Rembrandt van Rijn. It houses one of only two surviving Michelangelo cartoons and several cartoons related to Raphael and his workshop. Dr. Stanziola is undertaking a project to modernize the GDS and Schenck will be advising him on new storage solutions to optimize the care and preservation of the collection.
Schenk's primary focus will be on the eighteenth-century Carlo Firmian Collection and she will be collaborating with AFC's Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, Emma de Jong, in her research on the different types of papers present in the collection. Emma has so far catalogued 1,500 individual art works from the Firmian Collection. Her efforts are part of a large scale digitization program, which will see Capodimonte’s entire print, drawing, and porcelain collection put online. The projected launch date for the new digital database is in 2026.
Updates from our Past and Present Fellows
Emma de Jong (‘23-’25 Fellow) is currently writing several articles about different aspects of the Firmian collection. She has already published an introductory blogpost on the Codart website and presented her work at La Capraia (The Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities) and the Società Napoletana di Storia Patria. She wrote a contribution for the exhibition catalogue Art and War in the Renaissance: the Battle of Pavia Tapestries, which in Elizabeth Cleland’s Burlington Magazine review was described as ‘a useful discussion of the drawings’. At the end of March Emma will be attending a seminar on print curation in London and Paris. It is being hosted by the academic journal Print Quarterly and generously funded by the Getty Paper Project.
To stay abreast of Emma’s work, follow the AFC’s Instagram page, where she posts the latest news about Capodimonte and the AFC.
Joris Hoefnagel, Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (Ignis): Plate 53: Southern Hawker Dragonfly, c.1575/1590, gift of Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald
Kimberly Schenck (Spring 2025) has been working on one of the great treasures of the National Gallery of Art: Joris Hoefnagel's (1542-1601) The Four Elements, a set of four volumes (Aier, Terra, Aqua and Ignis) of miniatures of animals and plants in watercolor on parchment. Kim's and her museum colleagues' research has focused on the materials and techniques used by Hoefnagal to paint the insects in Ignis. One of their discoveries is that many of the butterflies were first created with lepidochromy, a transfer printing process using real insect wings, and then embellished with paint. All four volumes are to be displayed in the upcoming exhibition at the National Gallery of Art titled "Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World" (May 18-November 2025). Kim's essay, co-authored with Stacey Sell, is published in the book: Insects and Colors between Art and Natural History, edited by V.E. Mandrij and Giulia Simonini (Brill, 2024). They have also contributed a recent article, "Insect Transfer Prints in Joris Hoefnagel's Ignis from The Four Elements" to Master Drawings. Finally, Kim is currently working on an essay for an upcoming volume of Facture. The working title is: "Angles of Light: Examination of Joris Hoefnagel's Insect Watercolors Using XRF Mapping." To find out what Kim will be doing at Capodimonte this spring, please refer to the article at the top of the newsletter.
Caterina de Julianis, Penintent Magdalene, 1717. Polychrome wax, painted paper, glass, tempera on paper, and other materials, 59.2 x 53.2 x 11.5 cm. Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, Detroit Institute of Arts, 2019.44.
Caroline Paganussi (‘21-‘23 Fellow) has a forthcoming volume Women in Early Modern Sculpture, 1400 - 1800: Molding Matters, which she co-edited with Eve Straussman-Pflanzer (Curator of Italian and Spanish Painting, National Gallery of Art). It is under contract with Routledge. The volume is the first to explore the contributions of women sculptors between 1400 and 1800. Her chapter focuses on the work of Caterina de Julianis, a Neapolitan wax sculptor from the late 17th century. Later this month, her article on an incised Philippine bamboo tube that traveled to Italy will appear in print in the journal Eighteenth-Century Life. This is a project she began during her AFC fellowship.
Caroline is teaching in the Italian Studies Department at the University of Sydney. She is teaching remotely at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, and advising Master’s thesis projects at Lindenwood University, MO.
Claire Van Cleave (‘20-’21 Senior Fellow) has a forthcoming book on the Farnese drawings at Capodimonte. It is under contract with Editori Paparo and will be published in English in March. It includes forwards by Capodimonte Director Eike Schmidt and Vincenzo Stanziola. At its peak, the Farnese collection included over 850 works on paper, but today only 57 drawings with a Farnese provenance are identifiable in Capodimonte collections. The book comprises two parts: a history of the Farnese collection and a catalogue of the drawings with a Farnese provenance remaining at Capodimonte, including works by Parmigianino and Sofonisba Anguissola. Claire began her research during her AFC fellowship.
Stay up to date on Claire’s new publication through her Instagram page @farnese_drawings
Dr. James Anno ('17-'19 Fellow) is Associate Curator of European Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX. James is curator-in-charge of the upcoming exhibition Knights in Shining Armor: The Pavia Tapestries (March 2 - May 26, 2025). This will be the last U.S. stop of this exhibition. The seven tapestries, that are exhibited in the U.S. for the first time, will be returning to Italy when the exhibition closes in May. In his Washington Post review of the exhibition, Sebastian Smee writes that the tapestries ‘are surely among the most remarkable works of art ever created by human hands’.
Members at the $100 level and above may inquire about special programs they can attend in Houston for the opening or during the exhibition run. James will be giving the opening lecture. Please contact us at americanfriendsofcapodimonte@gmail.com. For more info, see the museum website.
Upcoming AFC Trip to Naples: September 2025
The AFC Trip to Naples is planned for September 18-21, 2025.
Highlights will include a day at the Capodimonte Museum with curators and conservators. We will be exploring the 14 new Porcelain galleries reimagined by legendary designer Federico Forquet and making a visit to the conservation lab where Director Schmidt has announced the restoration of several masterpieces including works by Niccolò di Tommaso, Cristoforo Scacco and Giovanni Antonio Bazzi “il Sodoma”. We have reserved opera tickets to see Tosca with Neapolitan soprano Anna Pirozzi. On September 19 we will be celebrating the Feast of San Gennaro, which dates back to the fourteenth century.
The trip is currently fully subscribed, please email us if you would like to be added to the waiting list.
We hope you you will continue to support us in 2025. The American Friends of Capodimonte is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and gifts are tax-deductible. Introductory membership is $100 annually and includes a quarterly subscription to the newsletter. Should you be in Naples, membership always includes the opportunity to enjoy a tour of the Capodimonte Museum with our AFC Fellow (subject to availability). For more information, email: americanfriendsofcapodimonte@gmail.com.
While scholars and members of the media are not required to donate to receive the newsletter, we would welcome your tax-deductible contribution which supports the AFC Fellow in their scholarly pursuits
Yours sincerely,
Cristina Del Sesto, AFC President
And the AFC Board
Giovanni Lombardi, Honorary President; Nancy Vespoli, Vice Chair; Vincent Buonanno, Founder and President Emeritus; James Anno, Program Director; Mary Ellen Countryman, Treasurer: Gretchen Hirschauer, Secretary; Tory Gath; Henrietta Hakes; Bartley Livolsi; and Francis Prins
Capodimonte in the News
/“They [the Pavia tapestries] are surely among the most remarkable works of art ever created by human hands.”
The Washington Post has published a very positive full spread exhibition review of Art & War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries. Both the tapestries and the exhibited armor come from the Capodimonte collection. This is the first time Capodimonte has ever loaned the series, which was designed and woven between 1525-1531. The exhibition will be on view at the De Young Museum in San Francisco until January 12. It will then travel to The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX, where it will be on view from March 2 to May 26. Before returning to Naples, the series will be exhibited in Pavia to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Battle, which took place in the early morning of February 24, 1525.
We highly recommend a visit!
Cristina Del Sesto,
AFC President
Watch Our Exhibition Trailer to See How Capodimonte Prepared the Tapestries for Exhibition
The AFC Serves One of Europe’s Greatest Museums
The American Friends of Capodimonte (AFC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to build awareness in the English-speaking world of one of Europe’s greatest museums. Thanks to our Capodimonte Fellowships, we are the first and only American organization to place talented, young American art historians directly inside an Italian museum. Our members and donors enjoy private tours, events, and dinners in the Museum and Royal Park. When works from the Capodimonte collection travel to America, we invite all who contribute to join us for events and exhibitions. For more information, check out our website: https://www.americanfriendsofcapodimonte.info/
Buon natale e felice anno nuovo
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Bartolomeo Vivarini, Madonna and Child with Saints, 1465.
Tempera on panel, 118 x 120 cm (46.46 x 47.24 inches).
Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy. Currently on view in room 8.
Thank you to our generous 2024 donors!
Mary Avery, AFC Member
Robin Boss, AFC Member
Tony Bozanich, AFC Member
Philip Davis and
Kristina Pappas, AFC Members
Ellen Dudash, AFC Member
Carmela Falco-Brown, AFC Member
Ellie Insley, AFC Member
Gabrielle Lesser, AFC Member
Marion Pardo, AFC Member
Duncan Pollock, AFC Member
Mark Robinson, AFC Member
Jay Secor, AFC Member
Trina Secor, AFC Member
Laura Segal, AFC Member
Emma C. de Jong, ‘23-’25 AFC fellow
Caroline Paganussi, ‘21-’23 AFC fellow
Claire Van Cleave, ‘20-’21 AFC fellow
James Anno, ‘17-’19 AFC fellow
Cristina Del Sesto, President
Giovanni Lombardi, Honorary President
Nancy Vespoli, Vice Chair and
President Emeritus, and Mike Vespoli
Mary Ellen Countryman, Treasurer
Gretchen Hirschauer, Secretary
James Anno, Program Director
Vincent Buonanno, Founder and
President Emeritus
Victoria Gath, AFC Board Member
Henrietta Hakes, AFC Board Member
Bartley Livolsi, AFC Board Member, and Julie Livolsi
Francis Prins, AFC Board Member,
and Ed Villani
Eike Schmidt, Director Capodimonte Museum
Sylvain Bellenger, Director Emeritius
The AFC Serves One of Europe’s Greatest Museums
The American Friends of Capodimonte (AFC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to build awareness in the English-speaking world of one of Europe’s greatest museums. Thanks to our Capodimonte Fellowships, we are the first and only American organization to place talented, young American art historians directly inside an Italian museum. Our members and donors enjoy private tours, events, and dinners in the Museum and Royal Park. When works from the Capodimonte collection travel to America, we invite all who contribute to join us for events and exhibitions. For more information, check out our website: https://www.americanfriendsofcapodimonte.info/
AFC Newsletter Fall 2024
/The AFC Fall Newsletter
Our host, Director Thomas Campbell, Consul General Sergio Strozzi, and Capodimonte Director Eike Schmidt together with our AFC members at the exhibition Art & War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries at the de Young Museum, San Francisco.
A Word From the AFC President
Dear AFC members,
We’ve just returned from San Francisco and the de Young Museum’s opening of Art & War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries. Twelve AFC members joined us along with Capodimonte Director Schmidt and our AFC Fellow, Emma de Jong.
A warm thank you to Thomas Campbell, director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, overseeing the de Young and Legion of Honor museums, for hosting us in grand fashion and to Isabella Lores-Chavez at the Legion of Honor as well. We are grateful to Dr. Alberta Lai for the Italian Cultural Institute’s party, where Italian Consul General Sergio Strozzi graciously addressed us and presented us with a thoughtful message from Ambassador Zappia. Finally, we want to thank Albiera Antinori and Antinori Napa Valley for an extraordinary day at the small-lot winery in the remote Atlas Peak District, made possible by Sara Nieddu, Karla Jensen, and winemaker Marla Carroll.
The search for the 2025-2026 AFC Fellow has officially begun! Please share this link to the application (https://www.americanfriendsofcapodimonte.info/afc-fellowship-about) and help us get the word out. It is a rare —in fact the only— opportunity for an American postdoctoral curator to work within an Italian museum. In order to promote our fellowship, the AFC commissioned ModioMedia to make three videos, which are included in the newsletter below.
Soon we will be announcing our 2025 AFC Trip and it is going to be epic! Members only will receive this announcement first. Have you renewed your subscription? We want you back! There’s still time to renew or become a member. The American Friends of Capodimonte is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and gifts are tax-deductible. Introductory membership is $100 annually and includes a quarterly subscription to the newsletter.
A $300 donation includes quarterly newsletter and advance notice of all trips and priority registration, special tours and other programming. AFC Trips are an additional charge. Should you be in Naples, membership always includes the opportunity to enjoy a tour of the Capodimonte Museum with our AFC Fellow (subject to their availability). For more information, email: americanfriendsofcapodimonte@gmail.com
While scholars and members of the media are not required to donate to receive the newsletter, we would welcome your tax-deductible contribution which supports the AFC Fellow in her or his scholarly pursuits.
Yours sincerely,
Cristina Del Sesto, AFC President
We Thank Our Donors
Please welcome Dott. Giovanni Lombardi as AFC Honorary President. Dott. Lombardi has supported the AFC with his in-kind gift of housing for two AFC Fellows. We would like to thank him and all of our 2024 donors to date.
Mary Avery, AFC Member
Robin Boss, AFC Member
Philip Davis, AFC Member
Ellen Dudash, AFC Member
Ellie Insley, AFC Member
Gabrielle Lesser, AFC Member
Marion Pardo, AFC Member
Duncan Pollock, AFC Member
Mark Robinson, AFC Member
Jay Secor, AFC Member
Trina Secor, AFC Member
Laura Segal, AFC Member
Cristina Del Sesto, President
Giovanni Lombardi, Honorary President
Nancy Vespoli, Vice Chair and
President Emeritus, and Mike Vespoli
Mary Ellen Countryman, Treasurer
Gretchen Hirschauer, Secretary
James Anno, Program Director
Vincent Buonanno, Founder and
President Emeritus
Victoria Gath, AFC Board Member
Henrietta Hakes, AFC Board Member
Bartley Livolsi, AFC Board Member, and
Julie Livolsi
Francis Prins, AFC Board Member, and
Ed Villani
Photo Album of the AFC Trip to San Francisco
On the first day of our trip to San Francisco we attended the exhibition opening of Art and War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries at the de Young museum.
Director Thomas Campbell gave a great introductory lecture, which was followed by a preview of the show.
After a toast with Dr. Eike Schmidt, director of the Capodimonte Museum, we made our way to dinner at Cotogna restaurant.
The next morning we returned to de Young Museum to enjoy a private tour of Art and War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries, led by Emma C. de Jong, our current AFC fellow, and James Anno, curator at the Houston Museum of Fine arts and the ‘17-’19 AFC fellow.
In the evening we were welcomed by Dr. Alberta Lai at the Italian Cultural Institute, where we listened to presentations by Dr. Thomas Campbell, Director and CEO of the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums; Dr. Eike Schmidt, Director of the Capodimonte Museum; Sergio Strozzi, Italian Consul General; and a digital message from Mariangela Zappia, Italian Ambassador to the United States.
On our final day in San Francisco we were guided through the Mary Cassatt at Work exhibition at the Legion of Honor by associate curator Dr. Isabella Lores-Chavez. The Legion of Honor will be be celebrating its centennial on November 11.
In the afternoon we visited the Antinori Vineyard at Atlas Peak, Vaca Mountain Range, Napa. We were served a wonderful lunch and received a tour of their facilities, including the cave in which they mature their wines.
The Search For the Next AFC Fellow Has Started
All the details about the fellowship application requirements can be found on our website:
https://www.americanfriendsofcapodimonte.info/afc-fellowship-about.
For an impression of the experience of being an AFC fellow, watch the clip at right.
James Anno, ’17-’19
Claire Van Cleave, ’20-’21
Caroline Paganussi, ’21-‘23
Emma C. de Jong, ’23-’25
James Anno and Dott. Giovanni Lombardi Present the AFC at the Ifis Art Conference in Venice
“Dott. Giovanni Lombardi’s leadership at Capodimonte as President of the Advisory Board is highly valued. His funding the conservation of Titian’s Portrait of Pier Luigi Farnese marks an important contribution to Capodimonte and Italian culture. We are pleased that Dott. Lombardi invited Dr. James Anno, Program Director of the American Friends of Capodimonte, to give a guest presentation during Dott. Lombardi’s speech at the Ifis Art conference. The American Friends of Capodimonte remain a vital partner of our museum.”
Watch AFC Fellow Emma de Jong Introduce the Firmian Print Collection and Read her Newly Published Article
Click on the image above to go to Emma’s article, published on the Codart.nl website in September.
Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram for the latest updates from our fellow.
On View at Capodimonte
To celebrate the return of Capodimonte’s masterpieces after a long period of being out on loan, they are now exhibited together in one room. Among them are Parmigianino's Antea, Titian's Danaë and his portraits of Paul III, Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith beheading Holofernes and Caravaggio's Flagellation. The latter had been absent for over two and a half years. Although major renovations to the building are ongoing, the museum will remain open to the public.
The anthological exhibition Giuseppe Pirozzi: The sculptor’s atelier shows circa 80 works representing salient moments of the Neapolitan sculptor’s long career. On the occasion of the exhibition, seven works by the artist will be donated to the Museum and Royal Park of Capodimonte.
Open September 16, 2024 - January 6, 2025 in the Cellaio, a historic building in the Capodimonte bosco.
The AFC’s U.S. Exhibit Recommendation
During the reigns of the Bourbon kings Charles III of Spain (who ruled as Charles VII of Naples from 1734 until 1759) and his son Ferdinand IV (1759 until 1799), the Mediterranean city of Naples established itself as a major European capital and key destination on the Grand Tour, even as Mount Vesuvius continued to smolder, threatening its environs. Throughout the latter half of the eighteenth century, these two monarchs funded archaeological excavations on the Bay of Naples that unearthed ancient treasures and fed into the craze for classical art that infused the Bourbon court. This exhibition is a great opportunity to see works from the Capodimonte Museum and the National Archeology Museum of Naples on view in the U.S.A.
For more information, check out the website of the Meadows Museum in Dallas, TX.
The AFC’s Book Recommendation
“Capodimonte flows in our blood...We carry Masaccio’s Crucifixion inside ourselves.”
Read the New Yorker review here
The AFC Serves One of Europe’s Greatest Museums
The American Friends of Capodimonte (AFC) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to build awareness in the English-speaking world of one of Europe’s greatest museums. Thanks to our Capodimonte Fellowships, we are the first and only American organization to place talented, young American art historians directly inside an Italian museum. Our members and donors enjoy private tours, events, and dinners in the Museum and Royal Park. When works from the Capodimonte collection travel to America, we invite all who contribute to join us for events and exhibitions. For more information on the AFC, check out our website: https://www.americanfriendsofcapodimonte.info/
The Museo di Capodimonte remains open during renovations! For the most up to date opening times, check: https://capodimonte.cultura.gov.it/useful-information/. Full price entry is € 15, free entry for under 18. Free entry on the first Sunday of the month.
The museum can easily be reached by taxi and when departing from the city center by bus lines 3M, 168, 178, 204, C63. Address: Via Miano 2, 80131 Napoli NA.
Newsletter Summer 2024
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A Word from the AFC President
Dear Friends,
Treasures from the Royal Palace of Capodimonte are on tour in the United States for the very first time. Program Director, James Anno, reports from the Art & War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries opening in Ft Worth, TX.
In late April, AFC Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow Emma de Jong participated in the opening of an exhibition with panels from a comic book about the Battle of Pavia. The comic book was also presented at Napoli Comicon, one of the most important Comic book and pop culture conventions in Europe, attended by more than 170,000 people.
Through a collaboration with Modio Media Productions, we can now present an eleven minute video of Capodimonte's Director Emeritius Sylvain Bellenger giving a tour of the Pavia Tapestries to our own very AFC members. The video was recorded in September 2022, during an AFC trip to Naples.
The AFC free newsletter subscription expires this month. If you enjoy receiving the newsletter, renew your membership and subscription for $100.
A $300 donation includes quarterly newsletter and advance notice of all trips and priority registration, special tours and other programming. AFC Trips are an additional charge. Should you be in Naples, membership always includes the opportunity to enjoy a tour of the Capodimonte Museum with our AFC Fellow (subject to their availability). For more information, email: americanfriendsofcapodimonte@gmail.com
Thank you for your interest in and support for our mission!
Yours sincerely,
Cristina Del Sesto, AFC Board President
And the AFC Board:
Vice Chair, Nancy Vespoli; Founder and President Emeritus, Vincent Buonanno; Program Director, James Anno; Treasurer, Mary Ellen Countryman; Secretary, Gretchen Hirschauer; Tory Gath; Henrietta Hakes; Bartley Livolsi; and Francis Prins
Watch Capodimonte's Director Emeritus Sylvain Bellenger Give a Tour of the Battle of Pavia Tapestries to the AFC
Click on the image to play the video.
Exhibition opening at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX
By James Anno, AFC Program Director
The Kimbell Art Museum launched the opening of Art & War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries with a bang. I was greatly pleased to attend the opening festivities on June 13-15. I am moved by the elegance of the installation and the probity of their interpretation of these incredible artworks. The seven monumental tapestries that depict the seminal Battle of Pavia that occurred in the early hours of February 24th, 1525, envelope each visitor within a large, well appointed gallery in the Piano Pavilion. The turbulent action of the tapestries is complimented by arms and armor strategically placed throughout the gallery to draw your eye towards what we see in the tapestries. The balance, harmony, and visual impact of the Kimbell display is impeccable. My thanks to the Kimbell staff and Capodimonte curator Carmine Romano for their warm welcome.
Photographs courtesy of the Kimbell Art Museum.
James Anno with Carmine Romano, Capodimonte curator of Art & War in the Renaissance.
James Anno, Krista Brugnara, David Gramazio, George Shackelford, Anna Bursaux, Nancy Edwards, Jeffrey Fraiman
U.S. Curators on the Exhibition Art and War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries
“The opportunity for close inspection of masterpieces during the installation of an exhibition is a thrilling privilege. Marvels of superlative design and craftsmanship, the enormous tapestries of The Battle of Pavia from Capodimonte are full of exquisite details—from burly soldiers in ostentatious outfits dominating the foreground, to tiny vignettes of camp life and the countryside in the far distance. Throughout, gold and silver threads enliven the brightly colored surface of these luxurious artworks.”
“The Pavia tapestries, together with arms and armor from the Farnese Collection, present an immersive experience for our audiences. The monumental dimensions and scale of these seven tapestries envelope the viewer into the world of art, fashion, and military technology all within the context of a battle that would shape Europe for centuries to come.”
“The opportunity to present these extraordinary landmarks of Renaissance art to our audience here in Northern California is something special. Equally special is the chance to work on such a global project with our museum colleagues in Naples, Fort Worth, and Houston. This global collaboration mirrors the complex team effort involved in producing the tapestries themselves five centuries ago.”
Exhibition Dates
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX: June 16, 2024 - September 15, 2024
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA: October 19, 2024 - January 12, 2025
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX: Spring 2025
Comic Book The Battle of Pavia: the Tapestries of Capodimonte
By Emma C. de Jong, ACF Curatorial Fellow, 2023-2025
In collaboration with two artists from the Scuola Italiana di Comix (Italian school for Comics), the Capodimonte has published a comic book retelling the story of the Battle of Pavia. Artist Fabiana Fienga based her designs on the Van Orley tapestries, incorporating many details from the woven masterpieces. Chiara Macor wrote the story, recounting the events of the battlefield from the perspective of a young Habsburg soldier. The English edition of the comic book was translated by AFC fellow Emma C. de Jong.
Presentation of the comic book in the tapestry gallery at the Capodimonte Museum.
In late April, the comic was presented at Capodimonte with a small exhibition whereby panels from the book were put on display alongside the tapestries. This allowed visitors to discover the details which were taken directly from the tapestries. It had the intended result: many young visitors could be seen enthusiastically viewing the tapestries up close.
The comic book was also the subject of a panel at the Naples Comicon convention. Naples hosts a Comicon convention every year, attracting over 170,000 visitors. Comicon offered a great way to introduce a completely new audience to one one the great masterpieces of the Capodimonte.
The comic book can be ordered on the publisher's website.
The AFC Serves One of Europe’s Greatest Museums
The American Friends of Capodimonte (AFC) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to build awareness in the English-speaking world of one of Europe’s greatest museums. Thanks to our Capodimonte Fellowships, we are the first and only American organization to place talented, young American art historians directly inside an Italian museum. Our members and donors enjoy private tours, events, and dinners in the Museum and Royal Park. When works from the Capodimonte collection travel to America, we invite all who contribute to join us for events and exhibitions. For more information on the AFC, check out our website: https://www.americanfriendsofcapodimonte.info/
The Museo di Capodimonte remains open during renovations! For the most up to date opening times, check: https://capodimonte.cultura.gov.it/useful-information/. Full price entry is € 15, free entry for under 18. Free entry on the first Sunday of the month.
The museum can easily be reached by taxi and when departing from the city center by bus lines 3M, 168, 178, 204, C63. Address: Via Miano 2, 80131 Napoli NA.
Spring Newsletter 2024
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Filippino Lippi (Prato, ca. 1457 – Florence, 1504), Annunciation with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Andrew, ca. 1470-75
Tempera on panel. inv. Q 42. Restored in 2023.
Word from the AFC President
There is much anticipation surrounding the Battle of Pavia 500th anniversary exhibition, Art and War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries, which will be touring the United States beginning in June. Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum is the first venue.
In this issue we will hear from filmmakers Gia Marie Amella and Beppe Mangione about the three films they created for the exhibition. Checkout the clip including Renaissance tapestries scholar Thomas Campbell.
“The opportunity to view [these tapestries] is unprecedented and not to be missed.”
We will be visiting Campbell’s museum in San Francisco for the AFC Trip October 17-October 20, 2024. There are still spaces available for this unique long weekend experience that includes attending the exclusive opening and a private tour of the exhibition with Campbell. We will also be honoring Director Emeritus Sylvain Bellenger. For more information about the trip: visit our website. A $500 nonrefundable contribution to AFC is tax deductible and reserves your spot.
Director Sylvain Bellenger’s historic tenure at Capodimonte came to a close in November, 2023. Eike Schmidt, the former director of Florence’s famed Uffizi Gallery, was appointed as Sylvain’s successor and took the reins in January, 2024. Dir. Schmidt is now running for Mayor of Florence. His directorship at Capodimonte will remain suspended until the outcome of the election in June, 2024. In the meantime, Massimo Osanna, Director General of Museums in Italy, will oversee Capodimonte’s administration. Rest assured that our intrepid AFC Fellow, Emma de Jong, continues to make huge progress.
Our AFC Fellow reports on Ottocento Napoli, an exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, featuring 19th-century objects from Capodimonte’s collection. The exhibition is curated by none other than Director Emeritus Sylvain Bellenger.
In other news, Naples in Paris, which opened at the Louvre last June and closed in January is now open in Turin under the title Capodimonte da Reggia a Museo.
Thank you for your continued support and we hope you are as enthusiastic as we are about the fact that one of Italy’s most culturally significant treasures is coming to the United States for a year. Subscribe to our trip to San Francisco for exclusive access to the exhibition and learn about the battle in 1525 that changed the course of history.
Yours sincerely,
Cristina Del Sesto, AFC Board President
“And That's a Wrap!”
by Gia Marie Amella, Writer, Producer, Director at Modio Media USA
and Beppe Mangione, Camera, Sound Designer, Editor at Modio Media USA
Click on the image above to play a clip of ‘Battle of Pavia Tapestries: A Masterpiece of Messaging’. This film is commissioned by The Museum Box, filmed and edited by Modio Media. This clip features Thomas P. Campbell, Director & CEO Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Cecilia Paredes, Brussels University, Brussels Regional Public Service Urbanism and Heritage; and Carmine Romano, Curator, Head of Digitization & Digital Catalogue, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte.
In spring 2022, the AFC contacted us about creating a series of short films for the Museo di Capodimonte as part of the 2024/25 U.S. touring exhibition comprising selected armor and firearms from the Farnese collection and the majestic Battle of Pavia tapestries. The unprecedented exhibition commemorating the battle’s 500th anniversary is just one of the countless initiatives spearheaded by Director Emeritus Sylvain Bellenger.
Click on the image above to play the exhibition trailer
Modio Media kicked off principal photography in August 2022 and delivered the final films in April 2024. We interviewed Sylvain Bellenger, a number of Capidomonte’s staff, including Carmine Romano, Sara Vitulli, and Antonio Tosini; Siena-based textile conservator Graziella Palei; Cecilia Paredes from Brussels University; and Thomas Campbell, Director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and an authority on Renaissance tapestry. Together, their voices tell a historically complex story of chivalry and heroism, long before the idea of “Europe” came into being.
Gia and Beppe filming the restauration of the tapestries at Capodimonte
The first in the trilogy, The Battle of Pavia: The Beginning of Modern Europe, traces the battle's history and how warfare evolved over time. The second, Battle of Pavia Tapestries: A Masterpiece of Messaging looks at tapestry production in Brussels in the early 16th century and features a segment with Campbell on how to interpret a tapestry. The third and final film Armor, Dress & Heroes spotlights selected armor and how costumery and historical figures are represented in the tapestries. When viewed back-to-back, the three films create a nuanced portrait intended to entertain and educate audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
As filmmakers, it was an absolute pleasure to film surrounded by great works of art and the professionals who care for these treasures. We're most grateful to the AFC Board and AFC Postdoctoral Fellows Caroline Paganussi and Emma C. de Jong as well as The Museum Box. And, lastly, to our fantastic DoP Matteo Castelli for his beautiful camerawork.
The exhibition is organized by the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte and The Museum Box in collaboration with the Kimbell Art Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
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“You Could Say They Are the Sistine Chapel of Tapestries”
By Carmine Romano, Curator, Head of Digitization & Digital Catalogue, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte
During the Renaissance, monarchs and religious leaders glorified their power and wealth through the art of tapestry, commissioning some of Europe’s greatest artists to commemorate significant events through the costly medium. Seven lavish tapestries depict the 1525 Battle of Pavia, commemorating Holy Roman Emperor Charles V’s decisive victory over French King François Francis I, which was a pivotal point in the Italian Wars almost five hundred years ago. The tapestries are monumental in scale—each measuring about twenty-eight feet wide and fourteen feet high—drawing viewers into the world of Renaissance history, military technology, and fashion.
They are some of the most awe-inspiring examples of this often-overlooked yet highly prized Renaissance artform. They required remarkable feats of collaboration between artists and weavers—a single panel could take more than a year to produce. Designed by court artist Bernard van Orley, the tapestries were woven in Brussels by Willem and Jan Dermoyen in deeply saturated hues and exquisite detail, luxuriously highlighted with gold and silver thread. Each composition is filled with richly adorned military leaders, horsemen, and mercenary foot soldiers armed with swords, pikes, and firearms, all inhabiting a stunning panoramic landscape, from the walled park of the battleground to undulating hills in the distance.
Enhancing the visitor’s understanding and enjoyment of the woven depictions of battle, the exhibition will include a selection of arms and armor from Capodimonte’s renowned Farnese Armory. Among the most elegant objects on view will be a splendid helmet and rotella shield with episodes from Roman history, Pompeo della Cesa’s elegant “Volat” armor garniture, an exquisite arquebus made for Ranuccio Farnese by Giovanni Battista Visconti, and a variety of ornately detailed swords and firearms.
AFC Fellow reports: Napoli Ottocento
By Emma C. de Jong, ACF Curatorial Fellow, 2023-2025
Emma with Capodimonte’s Director Emeritus, Sylvain Bellenger.
Together with AFC board member Francis Prins, I was invited to attend the opening of the exhibition Napoli Ottocento at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome. Curated by former Capodimonte director Sylvain Bellenger and Capodimonte’s Carmine Romano, this show puts Naples’ long 19th century back into the spotlight. It includes many works from the Capodimonte Museum, as well as other Neapolitan and international collections.
Although Naples was not nominated as the capital city after the completion of Italy’s unification in 1870, nor was their king chosen to be the new head of state, Naples became the cultural trendsetter within the newly established kingdom. Local artists, including Giuseppe De Nittis, Domenico Morelli, Ercole and Giacinto Gigante, made innovations in genres such as landscape painting and scenes of daily life. This attracted foreign artists, including William Turner, John Singer Sargent, and Edgar Degas, who traveled to the city in search of inspiration. Degas portrait of Thérèse De Gas (c. 1863), which shows a view of Naples through an open window, forms one of the center points of the show and features on the exhibition’s promotional materials.
Spanning works from the tail end of the Grand Tour up to the start of the first World War, this exhibition comes highly recommended by Francis and myself to those interested in gaining a new perspective on the ancient city on the bay.
Emma and Francis at the opening.
Ottocento Napoli is on view at the Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome. Open everyday 10am - 8pm until June 16.
The AFC Recommends: Reggia di Venaria, Turin
Exhibition of Capodimonte masterpieces, previously on view at the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Open Tuesday - Sunday until September 15.
The AFC Serves One of Europe’s Greatest Museums
The American Friends of Capodimonte (AFC) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to build awareness in the English-speaking world of one of Europe’s greatest museums. Thanks to our Capodimonte Fellowships, we are the first and only American organization to place talented, young American art historians directly inside an Italian museum. Our members and donors enjoy private tours, events, and dinners in the Museum and Royal Park. When works from the Capodimonte collection travel to America, we invite all who contribute to join us for events and exhibitions. For more information on the AFC, check out our website: https://www.americanfriendsofcapodimonte.info/
The Museo di Capodimonte remains open during renovations! For the most up to date opening times, check: https://capodimonte.cultura.gov.it/useful-information/. Full price entry is € 15, free entry for under 18. Free entry on the first Sunday of the month.
The museum can easily be reached by taxi and when departing from the city center by bus lines 3M, 168, 178, 204, C63. Address: Via Miano 2, 80131 Napoli NA.
Exhibition announcement
/Art & War in the Renaissance:
The Battle of Pavia Tapestries
Exactly 499 years ago, in the early morning of February 24, 1525, the Battle of Pavia was fought between the forces of the French King François I and Emperor Charles V. In order to celebrate his victory, a series of seven large tapestries was gifted to Charles V. They had been designed by Bernard van Orley and woven in the Brussels workshop of Willem and Jan Dermoyen.
The Capodimonte Museum in Naples, Italy, is pleased to announce an unprecedented traveling exhibition of the Battle of Pavia tapestries, which will be going to three U.S. cities. ‘Art & War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries' will first open at the Kimbell Art Museum in Ft.Worth, TX, and then travel to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA. A third U.S. venue is still to be announced.
Swiss captain Jean de Diesenbach seeks an honorable death by offering himself up to an imperial knight on horseback
“Capodimonte is excited to share these masterpieces with the American public for the first time. The exhibition will recreate the series’ panoramic and immersive view of the battlefield, highlighting the innovative design of these tapestries. The Farnese armory will evoke the conditions of the decisive Battle of Pavia in the wake of its 500th anniversary.”
Originally presented to Emperor Charles V in 1531, the tapestries depicting the battle were inherited by the Neapolitan d'Avalos family in the 1560s. The family sold the tapestries in the mid-eighteenth century, but reacquired the set in 1815. The works were donated to the Italian state in 1862. Never before has the complete series been lent to another museum. In addition to the seven enormous tapestries, the exhibition will also display a large collection of arms and armory, originally belonging to the Farnese family.
“The Battle of Pavia tapestries are, quite simply, one of the most important works of art created in northern Europe during the sixteenth century. If they had been made in fresco, they would be world renowned, but as tapestries they have been overlooked. The opportunity to view them on this US tour is unprecedented and not to be missed.”
THE SURRENDER OF KING FRANÇOIS I
American Friends of Capodimonte members are invited to exhibition opening events in San Francisco. The provisional dates for the trip are October 17-20, 2024. Director Emeritus and AFC Co-Founder, Sylvain Bellenger, is the co-curator of this exhibition and AFC Program Director, James Anno, is the Museum of Fine Arts Houston curator for the special exhibition. This trip will also offer the opportunity to meet the Capodimonte's new director, Eike Schmidt. For more information visit our AFC trips page or email us at: americanfriendsofcapodimonte@gmail.com.
THE FLIGHT OF THE LADIES AND SERVANTS
“The Battle of Pavia Tapestries are both important works of art and valuable records of history. The Kimbell is grateful to the Italian government, the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, and The Museum Box for the unparalleled opportunity for our audiences to experience firsthand these spectacular examples of the most luxurious art form from Renaissance Europe. Our visitors will be enveloped in the world the tapestries depict.”
The exhibition schedule is as follows
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX: June 16, 2024 - September 15, 2024
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA: October 19, 2024 - January 12, 2025
A third U.S. venue will soon be announced for Spring 2025
Rizzoli will be publishing the exhibition catalog.
The exhibition trailer was made in collaboration with Modio Media.
For press inquiries: Cristina Del Sesto, AFC President: americanfriendsofcapodimonte@gmail.com
AFC Winter Newsletter 2024
/Happy Valentine's Day!
This year we celebrate the occasion with Annibale Carracci's painting of Rinaldo and Armida. This couple's love story features in Torquato Tasso's incredibly popular poem Jerusalem Delivered (La Gerusalemme liberata, 1581), which is set during the crusades. Armida is a Muslim sorceress, who kidnaps the Christian knight Rinaldo. She intends to kill him in his sleep, but instead falls in love. When Rinaldo's fellow knights come looking for him - in the painting they can be seen hiding in the bushes - they give him a diamond mirror. When Rinaldo sees himself reflected, he is convinced to return to war and leaves Armida behind. At a later point in the poem, Rinaldo finds Armida just as she is about to commit suicide because she is so lovesick. He stops her and the couple is reunited.
Annibale Carracci, Rinaldo and Armida (ca. 1601), oil on canvas. Capodimonte Museum, Naples.
Word from the AFC President
Dear American Friends of Capodimonte,
We would like to welcome Director Eike Schmidt to Capodimonte Museum and thank Director Sylvain Bellenger for his eight years of leading the museum through extraordinary change for the better.
Last year, AFC traveled to Paris to attend the opening of Naples à Paris at the Louvre. This year, Capodimonte Museum’s traveling exhibition ---Art & War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries--- will visit three U.S. cities: Ft. Worth, San Francisco, and a soon to be announced third venue. The exhibition will commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Pavia, which took place on 23-24 February, 1525. Originally presented to the Emperor Charles V in 1531, the complete series of seven tapestries depicting the battle was inherited by the Neapolitan d'Avalos family in the 1560s. The family sold the tapestries in the mid-eighteenth century, but reacquired the set in 1815. They have never left Naples as a complete set since their return over 200 years ago.
Thank you to Modio Media! The AFC commissioned Gia Marie Amella and Beppe Mangione to create a film about the Battle of Pavia Tapestries exhibition. The trailer for the film can be watched below.
2024 AFC Trip: Pledge Now to Reserve Your Spot
Director Emeritus and AFC Co-Founder, Sylvain Bellenger, is the co-curator of this exhibition and AFC Program Director, James Anno, is the Museum of Fine Arts Houston curator for the special exhibition. The AFC is planning its annual trip to coincide with the opening in San Francisco at the de Young Museum (October 17-20, 2024, to be confirmed). This trip will also offer the opportunity to meet the Capodimonte's new director, Eike Schmidt.
Rooms are on hold at The Fairmont Hotel for donors who pledge $2,500 or more before March. Space is limited.
Checks may be paid to:
American Friends of Capodimonte
Kaczynski & Associates, Ltd.
17W635 Butterfield Rd., Suite 140
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
In Napoli!
Our AFC Fellow offers tours to AFC Members whenever they visit. Are you planning a trip? Let us know! Contact us at:
americanfriendsofcapodimonte@gmail.comFor the latest news and archived programs, check out our events calendar.
Thanks to Emma, at least twice a week on Instagram @american_friends-capodimonte you will find posts on all sorts of relevant information about Capodimonte, including what is opened during construction, special exhibitions, restaurant and teahouse hours, and posts focusing on a single work of art.
AFC Board News
Vice Chair, Nancy Vespoli; Founder and President Emeritus, Vincent Buonanno; Program Director, James Anno; Treasurer, Gretchen Hirschauer; Tory Gath; Henrietta Hakes, Bartley Livolsi, and Francis Prins are now joined by Mary Ellen Countryman who was elected to the board in December and began her two year term in January. Mary Ellen will serve as AFC Treasurer. You may remember Mary Ellen as the former U.S. Consul General in Naples. We thank Benjamin Patton for serving on the board and are looking forward to him remaining involved.
We are a small but mighty nonprofit and we can only support our AFC Fellow with your help. Thank you to the many generous donors and we hope you remain engaged.
Yours sincerely,
Cristina Del Sesto, AFC Board President
2023 Donors (Alphabetically)
Colleen Harvey
Gretchen Hirschauer
Paul & Mary Humenansky
Bart & Julie Livolsi
Maloy Family Fund
John Musto
Benjamin Patton
Ann Pizzorusso
Francis Prins & Ed Villani
Ellen Saville
George Shackelford
Samuel Tinaglia
Nancy and Mike Vespoli
Anonymous
James Anno
Sylvain Bellenger
Carmela Brown
Tim & Fran Buckley
Vincent Buonanno
Coltman Foundation (Charles Coltman & Juliette Lloyd)
Mary Ellen Countryman
Clare Cushman & Amedee Prouvost
Cristina Del Sesto
James & Lisa Dworkin
Helena Foulkes
Tory Gath & Mark Echlin
Henrietta Hakes
Art and War in the Renaissance:
The Battle of Pavia Tapestries
Detail from: Bernard van Orley, THE INVASION OF THE FRENCH CAMP AND THE FLIGHT OF THE LADIES AND SERVANTS (1525-1531), Tapestry. Capodimonte Museum, Naples.
U.S. Exhibition Dates
Kimbell Art Museum: June 16, 2024 - September 15, 2024
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: October 19, 2024 - January 12, 2025
(A third U.S. venue will soon be announced)
AFC Fellow News
The AFC mission is singular in Italy. Unlike other non-profit organizations that fund the restoration of Italian art, the AFC provides a talented young American curator to the Capodimonte museum through our fellowship program. Since 2017, our contributions to the Capodimonte museum have been signal. Our newest AFC fellow, Emma de Jong, is continuing this tradition. After a competitive application process, her tenure in Naples commenced September 1, 2023. She has hit the ground running in a most impressive way. You may read of her accomplishments below.
James Anno, AFC Program Director
The prints in the Firmian collection are kept in 123 large albums, all housed in a wooden cabinet gifted by the Italian king Vittorio Emanuele.
Update from Current AFC Fellow Emma C. de Jong
Just five months into her fellowship, Emma has already cataloged over seven hundred individual art works from the Carlo Firmian print collection. Once the prints have been photographed, the information she has gathered will be incorporated into the online museum catalog. This digitization project will make the Firmian Collection easily accessible worldwide. She has also been writing a new guide to the Firmian collection in order to improve in-person visits to the print cabinet. She intends for her research to result in several articles on different aspects of the Firmian collection. The prints at Capodimonte have hardly been studied, which means there is still a lot to be discovered! Promoting this collection among print scholars and enthusiasts is one of the aims of her tenure.
At the end of January Emma received the final proofs for her entry in the catalog Art and War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries, which will accompany the U.S. traveling exhibition. Her contribution focuses on the preparatory drawings, which are today housed in the Louvre.
Together with the fellows from La Capraia (The Center for the Art and Architectural History of Port Cities), Emma has been visiting the many libraries and archives of Naples. All are located in beautiful historic buildings, from castles and palaces to monasteries.
The best way to stay up to date with the AFC fellow’s latest activities is by following our Instagram account, where Emma regularly posts updates about her work and AFC events.
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 (1718-1782).
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.
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.
AFC Newsletter Summer 2023
/Dear American Friends of Capodimonte,
We have just returned from Paris where we visited the exhibition Naples in Paris: The Louvre Hosts the Museo di Capodimonte. Over 60 masterpieces from Capodimonte are now on view in the Louvre’s magisterial Grande Galerie, Salon Carré, Salle de l’Horloge, and Salle de la Chapelle. Exhibited alongside important Italian paintings from the Louvre’s collections, such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna of the Rocks and Raphael’s Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, Capodimonte’s recently restored – and, in many cases, reframed – works proclaim the exceptional quality of our Neapolitan museum’s collections to the Louvre’s broad visiting public.
Twenty-four AFC members traveled to Paris to attend seven exclusive events held over three days:
Private view of the exhibition at the Louvre followed by dinner at Racines des Prés
Tour of the exhibition for AFC members with Capodimonte Director General Sylvain Bellenger
Reception in honor of the exhibition at the Italian Embassy, the elegant Hôtel de la Rochefaucault-Doudeauville, hosted by the Ambassador of Italy to France Emanuela D’Alessandro.
U.S. Ambassador to France and Monaco, Denise Campbell Bauer, welcomed the AFC to the magnificent ambassador’s residence, the Hôtel de Pontalba, and we were given a tour followed by a reception.
AFC tour of the Pompidou Centre followed by dinner at the rooftop Restaurant Georges.
Director Sylvain Bellenger and the AFC tour of Naples in Paris exhibition. June 7, 2023. Photo by C. Harvey
Our current AFC Fellow, Caroline Paganussi, and our incoming AFC Fellow, Emma de Jong, were also able to join us. Initially we believed that we’d be lucky to attract a dozen people, but to our delight, the trip was immediately oversubscribed. Ultimately, the Paris trip raised over $60,000 for our AFC Fellows!
The exhibition catalogue (only available in French) can be purchased on Amazon.com.
Ambassador Campbell Bauer and the AFC
AFC Fellows Caroline Paganussi and Emma de Jong
Director Bellenger with the AFC at the Naples in Paris exhibition opening. June 6, 2023
In September, we will kick off the 2023 – 2024 cycle of AFC Talks. These 20–30-minute lectures followed by a Q&A are given by invited scholars whose work focuses on Neapolitan culture and/or works in Capodimonte’s collections. Ideally, these talks will be held in spaces where members of the public can attend and will be live streamed. If you would like to nominate a speaker and/or relevant topic for consideration, contact AFC Program Director James Anno at: james.philip.anno@gmail.com.
Capodimonte’s seven Battle of Pavia tapestries (1525-1531) will tour the United States in 2024 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the 1525 battle that changed the course of European history. Are you an AFC member? If so, you will receive advance notice about exclusive trips and events we are planning surrounding this exhibition.
Thank you again for your interest and your support.
A presto!
The AFC Board
Cristina Del Sesto, President; Nancy Vespoli, Vice Chair; Vincent Buonanno, Founder and President Emeritus; James Anno, Program Manager; Gretchen Hirschauer, Secretary; Tory Gath, Member; Henrietta Hakes, Member; Bart Livolsi, Member; Benjamin Patton, Member; Francis Prins, Member; Museo di Capodimonte Director Sylvain Bellenger
AFC Newsletter Spring 2023
/Dear American Friends of Capodimonte:
Thank you to recent donors: Mary Blaney and Paul Humenansky, Tory Gath and Mark Eichlin, Helena and William Foulkes, Colleen Harvey, Juliette Lloyd and Charles Coltman, Ann Pizzorusso, Francis Prins and Ed Villani.
Upcoming AFC Talk
The AFC Talks series continues this month with AFC Fellow Dr. Caroline Paganussi presenting on March 26 @ 3p.m. Please RSVP to americanfriendsofcapodimonte@gmail.com.
The title of Dr. Paganussi’s talk is: Representing the Youthful Bishop: Juan de Borgoña’s Stubbly Saint Augustine
In a small panel of Saint Augustine in the Capodimonte Museum (c. 1510), painted by the Burgundian or Provençal-born Spanish artist, Juan de Borgoña (d. c. 1538), the eminent Church Father is missing his characteristic flowing beard, a curious omission given that Augustine wrote about facial hair as a signifier of courage and maturity (Psalm 133). Instead, the saint bears an unmistakable five o’clock shadow, one which appears in Juan de Borgoña’s treatment of the saint in other panels. In this talk, how this stubbly Saint Augustine appears in other works by the artist will be explored— including another altarpiece in Capodimonte’s collections —and how local audiences might have interpreted his unusual appearance.
Watch Caroline give a fantastic overview for the AFC Fellowship in a newly produced video for the AFC
The AFC Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow (2022-2023) is supported by a grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Interpretive Fellowship program and by Michael and Nancy Vespoli.
In other AFC News
Caroline presented in early March at the Renaissance Society of America’s Annual Meeting, considered the largest and most prestigious conference dedicated to early modern studies in the world. Dr. Paganussi co-organized “Artistic Ways of Knowing: Papers in Honor of Meredith J. Gill.” The panel is chaired by Anthony Colantuono, Professor of Art History at the University of Maryland.
New exhibition at Capodimonte: La Madonna del pesce di Raffaello torna a Napoli dopo quattrocento anni'
Opens March 13 and runs until June 25. AFC members are offered tours by reservation.
If you are not already a member, please join us!
Warmly,
The AFC Board
Executive members: Cristina Del Sesto, Sylvain Bellenger, Nancy Vespoli, Vincent Buonanno, James Anno, Gretchen Hirschauer
Members: Tory Gath, Henrietta Hakes, Bart Livolsi, Benjamin Patton, Francis Prins