Chiara Spinelli

{{Short description|Italian artist (1744–1823)}}

File:Chiara Spinelli di Belmonte - Self-portrait in Uffizi Gallery.jpg

Chiara Spinelli (1744-1823),{{Cite book |last1=Fortune |first1=Jane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n-ujfOEWcfcC&dq=Chiara+Spinelli&pg=PA199 |title=Invisible Women |last2=Falcone |first2=Linda |date=2010 |publisher=TheFlorentinePress |isbn=978-88-902434-5-5 |language=en}} later the Princess of Belmonte, was an Italian noblewoman and artist, especially noted as a pastellist.{{Cite book |last=Recca |first=Cinzia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-sKWDQAAQBAJ&dq=Chiara+Spinelli&pg=PA411 |title=The Diary of Queen Maria Carolina of Naples, 1781-1785: New Evidence of Queenship at Court |date=2016-11-25 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-31987-2 |language=en}}

Spinelli was born in Naples, the daughter of Troiano, the ninth Duke of Laurino, who also published in philosophy. In 1762 she married Antonio Francesco Pignatelli, the prince of Belmonte, becoming his second wife.{{Cite book |last=PhD |first=Joseph Morley DC |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Bb1EAAAQBAJ&dq=Chiara+Spinelli&pg=PT287 |title=The Montagutesi: From Feudalism to Freedom |date=2023-10-10 |publisher=BookLocker.com, Inc. |isbn=979-8-88531-493-0 |language=da}} He died in 1794.{{Cite book |last=Croce |first=Benedetto |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LvzQAAAAMAAJ&q=Chiara+Spinelli |title=La rivoluzione napoletana del 1799: biografie, racconti, ricerche |date=1912 |publisher=G. Laterza & figli |language=it}} She was also the mistress of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies.

She took part in the revolution which led to the creation of the Parthenopean Republic in 1799; at its collapse she was exiled to France.[http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/SPINELLI.pdf Profile] at the Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800. Even after her exile she remained involved in political intrigue, and was noted by French police as one of the Neapolitan exiles who were part of a conspiracy plotting to invade and overtake Naples.{{Cite book |last=Brice |first=Catherine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wdD5DwAAQBAJ&dq=Chiara+Spinelli&pg=PA93 |title=Exile and the Circulation of Political Practices |date=2020-08-27 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-5275-5877-9 |language=en}}

A self-portrait by Spinelli is held in the collection of the Uffizi in Florence; it was originally displayed alongside those of Irene Parenti Duclos and Anna Borghigiani.Piero Pacini, Le Sedi dell'Accademia del Disegno: al "Cestello" e al "Crocetta" (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2001), p. 248

Spinelli was also an active patron of arts and literature; she hosted a salon, and sponsored composers such as Niccolo Piccinni.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GoR3kspGBHMC&dq=Chiara+Spinelli&pg=PA192 |title=A Companion to Early Modern Naples |date=2013-05-24 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-25183-0 |language=en}}