Venice: Palazzo Fortuny – The Divine
Marchesa exhibition. On at Palazzo Fortuny, until March 8, the
exhibition, The Divine Marchesa -
Art and life of Luisa Casati from the Belle Epoque to the Spree Years conceived by Daniela
Ferretti, curated by Fabio Benzi and Gioia Mori. The
exhibition celebrates the persona and legend of the woman who fascinated D’Annunzio
and whose outrageous lifestyle made her the muse of the greatest artists of the
day, from Boldini to Bakst, Marinetti, Balla, Man Ray, Alberto
Martini, Van Dongen and Romaine Brooks.
Above – Video: Age Cannot Wither Her,
by Marco Agostinelli and Andrea Liuzza. It is a portrait of the Marchesa
Casati based on a manipulation of the famous Man Ray photograph with
original shootings at Brompton Cemetery in London and other apparitions.
Above – photograph: Man Ray – Marchesa Casati – 1922 – platinum print on
Arches paper.
The Divine Marchesa. The exhibition reconstructs
through constant cross-referencing the social and artistic
relationships that filled Luisa Casati Stampa’s life: from the gilded
cage of high society to her encounter with Gabriele D’Annunzio,
which changed her for ever and developed into a love relationship and
friendship that lasted her whole life.
From her eccentricities to her masquerades and practice of the occult.
Next came the Futurist period, when she met Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
and embraced the cause of this artistic movement, promoting the
artists and collecting their works.
It all ended with her financial ruin and self-imposed exile
in London where she died in June 1957.
Above. Giovanni Boldini – The Marchesa Casati – 1911-13. Oil on canvas.
Photograph courtesy Palazzo Fortuny
The Divine Marchesa – The Marchesa Casati
with Giovanni Boldrini and another gentleman in costume at Ca Venier
dei Leoni, Venice. Photograph by Mariano Fortuny Madrazo – 1913 –
digital print from gelatin glass plates - Archivio Museo Fortuny, Legato
Henriette Fortuny, 1956.
The Divine Marchesa – sculpture by Paolo Troubetzkoy – Portrait of the Marchesa Casati
with Greyhound – bronze – 1914
Photograph courtesy Palazzo Fortuny
The Divine Marchesa. Luisa Casati Stampa, at the beginning of the 20th century
transformed herself into a work of art through exaggerated makeup,
transgressive and over-the-top “performances” and a life of excess.
She became a living legend, an astonishing and disturbing
personification of modernity and the avant-garde.
Above. Augustus Edwin John - La Marchesa Casati – 1919 – oil on canvas
-Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario.
The Divine Marchesa – Leon
Bakst – La
Marchesa Casati – pencil on paper - 1912
The Divine Marchesa
– Gabriele D’Annunzio – manuscript of Il Romanzo del Cipresso Bianco, Tormenti‼! - tre
note indelebili – 1927 -1928 c. – black and red India ink.
Daniela Ferretti curator of Palazzo Fortuny and ideator of the
exhibition La Divina Marchesa Art and life of Luisa Casati from the Belle
Epoque to the Spree Years.
The Divine Marchesa -
Anne-Karin Furunes - Crystal Images/Marchesa Casati, 1912-2014 – 2014 – painted and perforated
canvas.
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