As a young photographer his interest, talent and unique location in the heart of Tuscany led him to specialize in art, especially sculpture. He has published tens of prestigious art volumes over the years (a complete bibliography is enclosed) so he will mention only the ones that have been translated into many languages including English and are distributed in the USA:
- three volumes on Saint Peter’s Cathedral in Rome (the Basilica of Saint Peter’s, Bernini’s works in Saint Peter’s, The Three Pietà)
- various monographs on Michelangelo: The David, The Medici Tombs and (currently in preparation) Michelangelo as Sculptor.
He also has devoted prestigious monographs to Jacopo della Quercia and Giovanni Pisano (a book presented at Charleston’s Spoleto Festival).
What makes these projects exceptional is that Amendola was the only photographer allowed to document famous sculptures as they were being restored. This gave him complete up-close access and lighting and the result is a series of images that capture the artworks’ inner spirit as well as some little known scientific details essential for considering the masters’ works. A number of well-respected critics have written texts accompanying his images: best known in the USA are James Beck, Kathleen Brandt, Anita Moskowitz and Jack Wasserman while in Italy he worked with such famous scholars as Cristina Acidini, Giovanni Carandente, Mina Gregori and Antonio Paolucci.
In recent years he has been commissioned by such prestigious institutions as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and the Giuliano Gori Collection of Site-Specific Art in Pistoia to photograph their permanent collections.
His interest is not limited, however, to Renaissance art. He has worked with modern and contemporary artists as well, to name a few: Marino Marini, Henry Moore, Anthony Caro, Giorgio De Chirico, Jannis Kounellis, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Luciano Fabro. The artists all encharged him with capturing their works either in the studio or in exhibition spaces; many of them sat for me as well, giving rise to several books of artists’ portraits – for instance while photographing Alberto Burri’s retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in 1976, he was able to do portrait sessions with Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Larry Rivers.
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It is difficult to squeeze his career next to artists and masterpieces into a few lines so he will limit himself to saying that my Archive composes all the negatives and transparencies regarding the bibliography enclosed as well as a number of other special projects. Black and white prints form an important part of the total since he has always attended to the printing myself here in the studio.
