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.
