At twenty-five years since the grand exhibition on 17th century neapolitan civilization - and from the monumental photographic repertoire comprising the first visual census - , with the monographical studies that followed without interruption on caravaggio and his time, cavallino, ribera..., up to the last caravaggio and salvator rosa; in preparation for the spectacular program on the 'golden era' of neapolitan figurative arts which will begin next december with a return to baroque and continue with six months of exhibitions and cultural events demonstrating once more the quality and the depth of the vital energies which are typical of an unusual capital of european culture...
finally, the first volume on 17th century neapolitan painting. from caravaggio to massimo stanzione, under the competence of the man, nicola spinosa, who, in recent decades, has found a way to encourage the willingness to rediscover and renew the artistic physiognomy and passions rooted in an uncommon collective identity: from caravaggio's sojourns, in the first few years of the century, an authentic revolution that can remake and translate the turmoil that inspired giordano bruno, tommaso campanella, and the culture of galileo into indelible colors; through the prolonged 'naturalistic' experimentation of his orphaned heirs such as guida, battistello, sellitto, finoglia, up to the powerful mark which was characteristic of jusepe de ribera; continuing with the original interpretations of cavallino, guarino, fracanzano, with the bright emilian contaminations of lanfranco and domenichino...
until, with the horrible plague epidemic of 1656 that erased more than a third of the 400,000 residents as well as massimo stanzione, the season of caravaggio left the scene forever to the new baroque impulses, to variation on the theme of collective emotions and artistic imagination that will be the subject of the second volume of this story which is not to be missed