A Taste for Naples. Le mostre americane degli anni Ottanta sul Seicento napoletano

Attraverso un’approfondita ricerca documentaria condotta negli archivi di diversi musei italiani e americani, questo volume mira a riscoprire la genesi, lo svolgimento e gli esiti di quattro mostre riguardanti il Seicento napoletano che si tennero negli USA negli anni Ottanta. Queste sono: Painting in Naples 1606-1705 (Londra e Washington D.C, 1982-83); Bernardo Cavallino of Naples (Cleveland, Fort Worth e Napoli, 1984-85); The Age of Caravaggio (New York e Napoli, 1985) e A Taste for Angels. Neapolitan Painting in North America 1650-1750 (New Haven, Sarasota e Kansas City, 1987-88). Il loro studio ha permesso di comprendere quanto e come queste occasioni espositive contribuirono al fenomeno de “la riscoperta del Seicento”, mentre la loro comparazione con mostre nostrane permette di comprendere in che modo fu fatto conoscere in Europa e negli USA il “secolo d’oro” della pittura napoletana. Through extensive archival research conducted in the archives of several Italian and American museums, this volume aims to rediscover the origins, development, and outcomes of four exhibitions devoted to seventeenth-century Neapolitan art held in the United States during the 1980s. These were: Painting in Naples 1606–1705 (London and Washington, D.C., 1982–83); Bernardo Cavallino of Naples (Cleveland, Fort Worth, and Naples, 1984–85); The Age of Caravaggio (New York and Naples, 1985); and A Taste for Angels. Neapolitan Painting in North America 1650–1750 (New Haven, Sarasota, and Kansas City, 1987–88). The study of these exhibitions made possible to assess the extent to which, and the ways in which, these curatorial initiatives contributed to the phenomenon known as the “rediscovery of the seventeenth century.” Their comparison with contemporaneous exhibitions held in Italy also sheds light on how the “golden age” of Neapolitan painting was presented and made known in both Europe and the United States.