John Spike (born 1951

Class of 1969), art historian.[87]

What is John Spike (born 1951 known for?

Born on November 8, 1951, in New York City, John Thomas Spike is a highly respected American art historian, curator, and author who is best known for his specialization in the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods. Besides, he has made his mark as a contemporary art critic and was the past director of the Florence Biennale.

Raised in New York City and Tenafly, New Jersey, he is a proud alumnus of Tenafly High School. John Spike pursued his academic journey by attaining his B.A. at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, the latter with a focus on Mattia Preti, a painter of the Caravaggio school.

Throughout his remarkable career, Spike has organized numerous art exhibitions and delivered lectures at many prestigious institutions including the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée du Louvre, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others. His intellectual pursuits have even been recognized by Queen Elizabeth II who appointed him to the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in 2013, acknowledging his studies on Mattia Preti and Caravaggio, notable Knights of St. John.

He has published notable books on the Florentine Renaissance including Masaccio (Abbeville Press 1996), and Fra Angelico (Abbeville Press, 1997). His book, Fra Angelico, was named the "Art Book of the Year 1997" by the Hearst newspapers in the USA. His groundbreaking works also include a catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Caravaggio (2001), which was published in a second Revised Edition in 2010, and the biography "Young Michelangelo: The Path to the Sistine" (Vendome Press, 2010).

Between 2012 and 2019, Spike served as the Assistant Director and Chief Curator of the Muscarelle Museum of Art at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Throughout this period, he curated and authored several catalogues for various international loan exhibitions of Italian art. In recognition of his indispensable contributions to culture and history, he has been honored in Italy numerous times, with notable accolades including the Premio Anthurium (1998), Annual Medal of the Accademia delle Belle Arti di Messina (2001), and the Tuscan American Foundation's Man of the Year award (2006).