Giovanni Battista Spinelli (ca. 1630–ca. 1660)

• Was an Italian painter.
• He was born to a wealthy family.

• His father, Sante, was originally from Bergamo, and had moved to Chieti to be a grain merchant.

• His earliest art lessons may have come from Domenico Carpinoni in the 1620s.

• Spinelli established himself throughout Abruzzo, At the Chiesa della Santissima Trinità there is a Coronation of Mary, done around 1630.

• He also painted at churches in Chieti and Penne. 

• Around 1650, he decided to move to Naples, where he met Massimo Stanzione, Bernardo Cavallino, and Battistello Caracciolo.

• His is also known to have been an avid collector of prints from Northern Europe; including Hendrik Goltzius, Jacob Matham and Heinrich Aldegrever.

• Many of his works can be found at Castellammare di Stabia and in private collections in Naples.

• According to his biographer, Bernardo De Dominici, Spinelli gave up painting for alchemy and died while conducting an experiment in 1647, at the approximate age of fifty.

• More recent studies suggest that he lived until at least 1658. 

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