Elena Clara Antonia Carrara Spinelli (13 March 1814 inBergamo – 13 July 1886 inMilan), usually known by her married name of countessClara Maffei orChiarina Maffei, was an Italian woman of letters and backer of theRisorgimento.

At 17 years old she marriedAndrea Maffei, but they separated by mutual consent on 15 June 1846. She had a long and lasting relationship withCarlo Tenca.

She is well known for thesalon she hosted in via dei Tre Monasteri inMilan, known as the Salotto Maffei. Starting in 1834 and organised byTommaso Grossi andMassimo d'Azeglio, it attracted several well-known literati, artists, scholars, composers and pro-Risorgimento figures to meet to discuss art and literature. These includedAlessandro Manzoni,Giuseppe Verdi,Giovanni Prati andFrancesco Hayez (who painted a portrait of Clara which he then gave to her husband).

• Barbiera, Raffaello,Il salotto della contessa Maffei, Milano,Treves 1895 (new edition)
• Cunigi, Davide, "Una gentildonna bergamasca del Risorgimento. La contessa Clara Maffei", inRivista di Bergamo, XX, February 1941, pp. 49–53, and March 1941, pp. 74–78
• Monti, Antonio,Una passione romantica dell'Ottocento. Clara Maffei e Carlo Tenca, Milano, Garzanti 1940

• Media related toClara Maffei at Wikimedia Commons
• Raffaello Barbiera,Il salotto della contessa Maffei, Milano, Treves, 1895
• www.url.it
• Article on Clara Maffei inCorriere

• 1814 births
• 1886 deaths
• People from Bergamo
• Countesses
• Deaths from meningitis
• Neurological disease deaths in Lombardy
• Italian salon-holders
• Italian people of the Italian unification
• Nobility from Milan
• 19th-century Italian nobility
• People from the Austrian Empire

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Commons category link from Wikidata