More on the relocation of the Naples Caravaggio. Spinosa: "In the 1980s it was moved for restoration."

In a lengthy letter sent to Corriere del Mezzogiorno, Professor Nicola Spinosa, among the main supporters of the “no” to moving Caravaggio’s Seven Works of Mercy from Pio Monte della Misericordia to the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples for the Caravaggio in Naples exhibition (a “no” that was later definitive as the final verdict of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage ordered that the painting not leave the church), wanted to clarify some aspects of the issue, first and foremost the move in the 1980s, when the work left the Pio Monte to be displayed in an exhibition at Capodimonte, directed then by Spinosa himself.

“Caravaggio’s canvas, along with the other paintings in the church,” Spinosa explained, “was moved to Capodimonte by decision of then-Superintendent Raffaello Causa for reasons of protection and safety, since the church itself, following the November 1980 earthquake, was badly damaged and in need of complex restoration work that lasted beyond 1985; it was only because of this temporary move from the church that La Madonna della Misericordia was shown at three subsequent exhibitions, curated or designed by Raffaello Causa himself: in London in 1982 at the Royal Academy of Art (Pittura a Napoli da Caravaggio a Luca Giordano), and in Naples, also at Capodimonte, in 1984 (Civiltà del Seicento a Napoli) and 1985 (Caravaggio e il suo tempo). When the exhibitions were over and the restoration work on the church completed, the canvases of Caravaggio and the other painters were once again returned to Pio Monte and relocated on the altars of their original relevance.” Spinosa concludes by hoping that the controversy, deemed “useless and above all contrary to the real cultural, social and civil interests of Naples and the Neapolitans, but not only,” may cease.

The full letter was published in the March 10 edition of Corriere del Mezzogiorno.

More on the relocation of the Naples Caravaggio. Spinosa: "In the 1980s it was moved for restoration."

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