Matthew Spender, English Artist Who Made Chianti His Home, Dies Aged 81

Matthew Spender, English Artist Who Made Chianti His Home, Dies Aged 81

GAIOLE IN CHIANTI, Italy (florencedailynews.com) — Matthew Spender, the English sculptor, painter and writer who lived for decades in the Chianti countryside and helped inspire Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Stealing Beauty,” has died aged 81. Spender died in Gaiole in Chianti, in the province of Siena, on May 31, according to Italian media reports. Born in London in 1945, he was the son of poet Stephen Spender and pianist Natasha Spender. He studied Mo…