Chiara Spinelli (1744-1823), [1] later the Princess of Belmonte, was an Italian noblewoman and artist, especially noted as a pastellist. [2]
Spinelli was born in Naples, the daughter of Troiano, the ninth Duke of Laurino, who also published in philosophy. [1] In 1762 she married Antonio Francesco Pignatelli, the prince of Belmonte, becoming his second wife. [3] He died in 1794. [4] She was also the mistress of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies.
She took part in the revolution which led to the creation of the Parthenopean Republic in 1799; at its collapse she was exiled to France. [5] Even after her exile she remained involved in political intrigue, and was noted by French police as one of the Neapolitan exiles who were part of a conspiracy plotting to invade and overtake Naples. [6]
A self-portrait by Spinelli is held in the collection of the Uffizi in Florence; it was originally displayed alongside those of Irene Parenti Duclos and Anna Borghigiani. [7]
Spinelli was also an active patron of arts and literature; she hosted a salon, and sponsored composers such as Niccolo Piccinni. [8]
Naples is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's administrative limits as of 2022. Its province-level municipality is the third-most populous metropolitan city in Italy with a population of 3,115,320 residents, and its metropolitan area stretches beyond the boundaries of the city wall for approximately 30 kilometres. Naples plays also a key international role in international diplomacy, since it is home to NATO's Allied Joint Force Command Naples and of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean.
Charles III was King of Spain in the years 1759 to 1788. He was also Duke of Parma and Piacenza, as Charles I (1731–1735); King of Naples, as Charles VII; and King of Sicily, as Charles III (1735–1759). He was the fourth son of Philip V of Spain and the eldest son of Philip's second wife, Elisabeth Farnese. He was a proponent of enlightened absolutism and regalism.
The Kingdom of Naples was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was established by the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302), when the island of Sicily revolted and was conquered by the Crown of Aragon, becoming a separate kingdom also called the Kingdom of Sicily. This left the Neapolitan mainland under the possession of Charles of Anjou. Later, two competing lines of the Angevin family competed for the Kingdom of Naples in the late 14th century, which resulted in the death of Joanna I by Charles III of Naples. Charles' daughter Joanna II adopted King Alfonso V of Aragon as heir, who would then unite Naples into his Aragonese dominions in 1442.
Pietro Colletta was a Neapolitan general and historian.
The history of early modern Italy roughly corresponds to the period from the Renaissance to the Congress of Vienna in 1814. The following period was characterized by political and social unrest which then led to the unification of Italy, which culminated in 1861 with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy.
Spinelli is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include:
The Republic of Lucca was a medieval and early modern state that was centered on the Italian city of Lucca in Tuscany, which lasted from 1160 to 1805.
The history of Naples is long and varied, dating to Greek settlements established in the Naples area in the 2nd millennium BC. During the end of the Greek Dark Ages a larger mainland colony – initially known as Parthenope – developed on the Pizzofalcone hill in the 8th century BC, and was refounded as Neapolis in the 6th century BC: it held an important role in Magna Graecia. The Greek culture of Naples was important to later Roman society. When the city became part of the Roman Republic in the central province of the Empire, it was a major cultural centre.
The House of Strozzi is the name of an ancient Florentine family, who like their great rivals the House of Medici, began in banking before moving into politics. Until its exile from Florence in 1434, the Strozzi family was by far the richest in the city, and was rivaled only by the Medici family, who ultimately took control of the government and ruined the Strozzi both financially and politically. This political and financial competition was the origin of the Strozzi-Medici rivalry. Later, while the Medici ruled Florence, the Strozzi family ruled Siena, which Florence attacked, causing great animosity between the two families. Soon afterward, the Strozzi married into the Medici family, essentially giving the Medici superiority.
Eleonora Anna Maria Felice de Fonseca Pimentel was an Italian poet and revolutionary connected with the Neapolitan revolution and subsequent short-lived Neapolitan Republic of 1799, a sister republic of the French Republic and one of many set up in the 1790s in Europe.
Vincenzo Cuoco was an Italian writer. He is mainly remembered for his Saggio Storico sulla Rivoluzione Napoletana del 1799. He is considered as one of the precursors of the realist school and Italian liberalism. Cuoco adapted the critique of political rationalism of Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre for liberal ends, and has been described as a better historian than either of them. He influenced many subsequent Italian intellectuals, from Ugo Foscolo and Alessandro Manzoni to Bertrando and Silvio Spaventa to Benedetto Croce and Antonio Gramsci.
Luisa of Naples and Sicily was Grand Duchess of Tuscany as the wife of Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany. She was born a princess of Naples and Sicily as a daughter born to Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Maria Carolina of Austria.
Francesco Saverio Salfi or Franco Salfi was an Italian writer, politician and librettist.
Vincenzo Russo was an Italian patriot, who was a leading supporter of the short-lived Parthenopean Republic. Captured by the Sanfedista forces, he was soon executed along with many other rebels of the Bourbon rule of Ferdinand IV of Naples.
Gioacchino Toma was an Italian art instructor and painter, noted primarily for historic, realistic and genre subjects in a Romantic style.
Irene Parenti Duclos (1754–1795) was an Italian painter and poet. Her work as an expert copyist of old master paintings was highly valued in her era, and brought her honors from several Italian art academies. Moreover, she achieved particular renown as a pioneer in the revival of encaustic painting.
Vitangelo Bisceglia was an Italian botanist, agronomist and professor. He taught inside the University of Altamura. Because of his being a polymath, he's been described as "an encyclopedic spirit, the honor of the Muses".
Eliodoro Bianchi was an Italian operatic tenor and later a prominent singing teacher. Born in Cividate al Piano and trained in Naples under Giacomo Tritto, he made his stage debut in 1793. Amongst the many roles, he created during the course of his 40-year career were Baldassare in Ciro in Babilonia and the King of Sweden in Eduardo e Cristina, both of which were composed by Rossini expressly for Bianchi's voice. He retired from the stage in 1835 and spent his later years in Palazzolo sull'Oglio, where he died at the age of 75.
Trojano or Troiano Spinelli was an Italian nobleman, philosopher, economist, and historian, active in Naples.
Penitent Magdalene is a c. 1550 oil on canvas painting by Titian, now in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples.