John Spike
Encyclopedia
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
and Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
periods. He is also a prominent contemporary art critic and past director of the Florence Biennale
Florence Biennale
The Florence Biennale is an international contemporary art fair held every two years in the Historical Fortezza da Basso in Florence, Italy. The Biennale is run by Arte Studio, whose first contemporary art exhibition occurred in 1986. Subsequent exhibits grew, and they eventually formed the first...
. In 2007, Spike was appointed to the faculty of the Masters program in Sacred Art History jointly offered by the European University of Rome and the Pontifical Athenaeum, ‘Regina Apostolorum'. In 2011, Spike became a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg
Williamsburg
Williamsburg may refer to:*Williamsburg, former name of Kernville , California*Williamsburg, Colorado*Williamsburg, Florida*Williamsburg, Dunwoody, Georgia*Williamsburg, Indiana*Williamsburg, Iowa*Williamsburg, Kansas*Williamsburg, Kentucky...
, Virginia.
Childhood, youth, and personal life
Spike grew up in New York City and Tenafly, New JerseyTenafly, New Jersey
Tenafly is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 14,488. Tenafly is an affluent suburb of New York City....
where he was a friend and classmate of the actor Ed Harris
Ed Harris
Edward Allen "Ed" Harris is an American actor, writer, and director, known for his performances in Appaloosa, Radio, The Rock, The Abyss, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, A History of Violence, and The Truman Show. Harris has also narrated commercials for The Home Depot and other companies...
at Tenafly High School. His father was the Rev. Robert Spike, a prominent figure in the civil rights movement in the 1960s and his brother is Paul Spike
Paul Spike
Paul Robert Spike is an American author, editor and journalist. He is best known as the author of the 1973 memoir Photographs of My Father.-Education and background:...
, an author and the first American to be named editor of the British satirical magazine Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
. After undergraduate studies at Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
, he earned his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in art history in 1979. His dissertation was the first complete study of Mattia Preti
Mattia Preti
Mattia Preti was an Italian Baroque artist who worked in Italy and Malta.- Biography :Born in the small town of Taverna in Calabria, Preti was sometimes called Il Cavalier Calabrese...
(1613-1699), an important painter of the Caravaggio
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque...
school. Spike was later awarded honorary citizenship of Taverna
Taverna
Taverna refers to a small restaurant serving Greek cuisine, not to be confused with "tavern". The Greek word is ταβέρνα and is originally derived from the Latin word taberna...
, the Italian city that was Preti's birthplace, in recognition of his studies of Preti.
He permanently resides in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
with his wife Michèle Kahn Spike
Michèle Kahn Spike
Michèle Kahn Spike is an American lawyer, historian, and prominent lay figure in the Episcopalian church. Since the late 1980s she has lived in Florence, Italy together with her husband, noted art historian John Spike....
, a lawyer and biographer of Matilda of Tuscany
Matilda of Tuscany
Matilda of Tuscany was an Italian noblewoman, the principal Italian supporter of Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Controversy. She is one of the few medieval women to be remembered for her military accomplishments...
, and is the father of one son, Nicholas.
Career as Art Historian
In the course of his career, Spike has organized art exhibitions and read lectures at important museums around the world, including the Pinacoteca Nazionale, BolognaBologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
; the Galleria degli Uffizi and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence; the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; the Pierpont Morgan Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, New York; the Musée du Louvre, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
; the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart is an art gallery and art museum in Stuttgart, Germany, opened in 1843. In 1984 the opening of the Neue Staatsgalerie designed by James Stirling transformed the once provincial gallery into one of Europe's leading museums.-Alte Staatsgalerie:Originally, the classicist...
, Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
; the National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta
Valletta
Valletta is the capital of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt in Maltese. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the island of Malta, and the historical city has a population of 6,098. The name "Valletta" is traditionally reserved for the historic walled citadel that serves as Malta's...
, and the National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
in Washington, DC. He has also read lectures at Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
Universities, and the University of Malta
University of Malta
The University of Malta is the highest educational institution in Malta Europe and is one of the most respected universities in Europe. The University offers undergraduate Bachelor's Degrees, postgraduate Master's Degrees and postgraduate Doctorates .-History:The University of Malta was founded in...
. He is permanent consultant to two Italian museums, the Museo Civico di Taverna and the Museo Civico di Urbania, as well as many years friend and consultant to the Cathedral Museum of Mdina and the National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta, Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
. In 2006 Spike was also appointed to the Board of the Muscarelle Museum of Art
Muscarelle Museum of Art
The Muscarelle Museum of Art at The College of William & Mary is an art museum in Williamsburg, Virginia right on the College’s campus. It sits adjacent to the Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall on Jamestown Road. The museum was given to the College as a gift from alumni and friends and first opened its...
at the College of William and Mary
College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary in Virginia is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States...
, Williamsburg, Virginia.
Among the books Spike has published on the Florentine Renaissance are Masaccio
Masaccio
Masaccio , born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was the first great painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, Masaccio was the best painter of his generation because of his skill at recreating lifelike figures and movements as well as a convincing sense...
(Abbeville Press, 1996) and Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico , born Guido di Pietro, was an Early Italian Renaissance painter described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent"...
(Abbeville Press, 1997), both also available in Italian and French editions. His Fra Angelico, which also appeared in a German edition by Hirmer Verlag, was named “Art Book of the Year 1997” by the Hearst newspapers in the USA. His catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Caravaggio
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque...
(2001) was published in a second Revised Edition in 2010. His "Young Michelangelo: The Path to the Sistine: A Biography" was published in 2010 (Vendome Press; ISBN-10: 086565266X).
His contributions to culture and history have been recognized in Italy by the bestowal of the Premio Anthurium, 1998, the Annual Medal of the Accademia delle Belle Arti di Messina, 2001, the Premio Anassilaos, 2002 and Man of the Year by the Tuscan American Foundation, Florence, 2006. For 2011, he has been appointed Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Career as Contemporary Art Critic
Spike has written essays for books and exhibition catalogues on many contemporary artists, both in New York City and in Italy. In addition to his Michelangelo biography, he is currently overseeing the production of the Catalogue Raisonné for Richard AnuszkiewiczRichard Anuszkiewicz
Richard Anuszkiewicz is an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor.-Life and work:Richard Anuszkiewicz trained at the Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland, Ohio , and then with Josef Albers at the Yale University School of Art and Architecture in New Haven, Connecticut where he earned his...
, the leading American artist of the Op Art
Op art
Op art, also known as optical art, is a style of visual art that makes use of optical illusions."Optical art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing." Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made...
movement. Spike's most noteworthy contribution to contemporary art has been his involvement with the Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Contemporanea, Florence, Italy- more commonly known in English as the Florence Biennial. He was a member of the Jury for the inaugural exhibition in December 1997, and thereafter served as director from 1998-2005. In 2005, Spike was also the sole juror of the Turku Biennial in Turku
Turku
Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
as well as a member of the jury for the Triennale of India in New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
.
A. Books and exhibition catalogues on art and artists prior to 1800
Young Michelangelo: The Path to the Sistine. Vendome Press, New York, 312 pp. with 60 full-color and black-and-white illustrations, 2010.Caravaggio. Abbeville Press, New York, 272 pp. with 153 color plates + 29 b/w ills., plus CD-ROM, 2nd revised edition, 2010.
Dissimilar Revelations. Essays on Neolithic Art, Fra Angelico, Velázquez, Goya and Cézanne. Edgewise, New York, 62 pp. with 8 b/w ills., 2003.
Gregorio Preti Paintings and Documents, with the assistance of Nicholas Spike, Centro Di, Firenze, 2003.
Il Senso del Piacere. Una collezione di nature morte. Skira, Milano, 230 pp. with 140 color plates + numerous b/w ills., 2002.
Caravaggio. Abbeville Press, New York, 272 pp. with 150 color plates + 20 b/w ills., plus CD-ROM, 2001.
Il Corteo Trionfale di Carlo V di Nicolaus Hogenberg. Un capitolo del Rinascimento in un’acquaforte delle collezioni roveresche. Catalogo della Mostra, Palazzo Ducale, Urbania, 92 pp. with 100 b/w ills., 1999.
Mattia Preti. Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings / Catalogo ragionato dei dipinti. [Centro Di, Firenze, per il Comune di Taverna], 454 pp. with 108 color plates + 460 b/w ills., 1999.
Mattia Preti e l’Ordine di San Giovanni tra la Calabria e Malta. Catalogo della Mostra, Museo Civico, Rende, 26 March - 12 June 1999, 95 pp. with 11 color plates.
L’Idea del Soggetto. Drawings by Mattia Preti (1613-1699). Catalogo della Mostra, National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta, Malta, 23 December 1998 - 16 February 1999, 35 pp. with 40 color plates.
Mattia Preti. I documenti / The Collected Documents. [Centro Di, Firenze per la Banca di Credito Cooperativo della Sila Piccola - Taverna], 285 pp. with 30 color plates + 120 b/w ills., 1998.
Catalogo delle Opere di Mattia e Gregorio Preti a Taverna, Museo Civico di Taverna [Centro Di, Firenze, italiano/ English ed. bilingue], 137 pp., 50 color plates, 1997.
Disegni - Fonti - Ricerche per la maiolica rinascimentale di Casteldurante, Edizioni Biblioteca e Civico Museo di Urbania [Il Lavoro Editoriale], a cura di Gian Carlo Bojani e J.T. Spike, 142 pp. with 44 color plates + 57 b/w ills., 1997.
Masaccio, Fabbri Editori, 1995, 244 pp. with 97 color plates + 96 b/w ills. (French edition: Éditions Liana Levi, Paris; American edition, 1996: Abbeville Press, New York).
Fra Angelico, Fabbri Editori, 1996, 280 pp. with 90 color plates + 285 b/w ills. (French edition: Éditions Liana Levi, Paris; American edition, 1997: Abbeville Press, New York; German edition, 1997: Hirmer Verlag, München).
Catalogue of Italian Paintings in the Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1993, 112 pp. with 31 color plates + 42 b/w ills.
A Connoisseur's Guide to the Met, with Paul Magriel, Random House, New York, 1988, 235 pp. with 100 b/w ills.
The Age of Monarchy, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The Franklin Mint, Japanese edition, 1987; English and French editions, 1988.
Giuseppe Maria Crespi and the Emergence of Genre Painting in Italy, The Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, 1986, 245 pp. with 52 color plates + 111 b/w ills.
Aspects of Sculpture: the Paul Magriel Collection, The Guild Hall Museum, Easthampton, New York, 1985, 103 pp. with 19 color plates + 72 b/w ills.
Baroque Portraiture in Italy: Works from North American Collections, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL., 1984, 214 pp. with 19 col pls + 130 b/w ills.
Italian Still Life Paintings from Three Centuries, National Academy of Design, New York, 1983, 149 pp. with 50 color plates + 87 b/w ills.
The Illustrated Bartsch, Volumes 41, 42, 43 (formerly Bartsch, Le peintre-graveur, Volume XIX), Abaris Books, New York, 1981, 1982; Volume 30 (formerly XV, part 3), 1985. Co-editor, Volumes 28, 29 (formerly XV, parts 1 and 2), 1985, 1986.
Italian Baroque Paintings from New York Private Collections, The Art Museum, Princeton University, with Princeton University Press, 1980, 127 pp., color cover + 71 b/w ills.
B. Books and exhibition catalogues on art and artists after 1800
Angel Ramiro Sánchez, Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY, unpaginated with 26 color plates, 2003.Dennis Campay: New Paintings, Lagerquist Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, 120 pp. with 62 color plates, 2002.
Angel Orensanz Disegni: 1991-2000, Catalogo della Mostra, Galleria d’Arte Contemporanea di Palazzo Ducale, Pavullo, 64 pp. with 82 color plates, 2 June - 1 July 2001.
Rossano Naldi (1913-1994), Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze. catalogo della mostra. 1998. [italiano/ English ed. bilingue], 80 pp. with 59 color plates + 78 b/w ills.
Fairfield Porter: An American Classic, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1992, 320 pp. with numerous color plates + b/w ills.