Materfamilias

Happy Birthday

The Root of All Evil

Strike a Pose

Sauvage

Sub Tuum Praesidium

Casati Lives!

Elsa on Casati:

"Tall and gaunt with heavily made-up eyes, she represented a past age of splendour when a few beautiful and wealthy women adopted an almost brutally individualistic way of living and presenting themselfes to the public."

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by Elsa Schiaparelli

On Casati:

Lady Diana Cooper posing on a statue of a deer

"The fabled Luisa Casati lived in her half-built Palazzo... I saw her drifting down the Grand Canal under a parasol of peacock's feathers, but this surprise was nothing to the succesion of glorious shocks that were to come..."

by Lady Diana Cooper, Viscountess Norwich

Masquerade

Luisa Casati with artists Giovanni Boldini and Paul-César Helleu. Venice, 1913.

Casati: The Remains of The Days

"Through the number of masquerade ball thrown and paintings commissioned seemed inexhaustible, Luisa's fortunes were not. To her, the idea of "economizing" was not only tasteless, but also utterly meaningless. Even so, the disastrous aftershocks of the Cagliostro Ball were far-reaching. For the next half-decade, Luisa's Accountants battled with the many vendors still unpaid for their services, while forbidding her to make any further purchases without their consent. When the direness of the situation could no longer be ignored, she began to quietly sell off several items of special significance at a fraction of their actual worth. Polish chanteuse Ganna Walska acquired all the artifacts relating to the Comtesse de Castiglione. The 1908 Boldini portrait became part of the Rothschild family's private art collection. One of the Rockefeller clan bought the egyptian statue. A lemon-yellow Hispano-Suiza, formerly used to speedy jaunts between Le Vésinet and Paris, was quickly translated into cash. And couturière Coco Chanel purchased the bronze deer mascots for any further travels with them seemed highly unlikely"

in THE MARCHESA CASATI, Portraits of a Muse

Book Nº 85

À Manière des Imperatrices

Dita on Casati:

"...Look at the Marchesa Luisa Casati. She walked down the street naked, her pet cheetahs on leashes, and look at how classy and flamboyant she was."

by Dita von Teese

Pet Shop

Giovanni Boldini

Giovanni Boldini

Giovanni Boldini, born in 1842, was an Italian genre and portrait painter. According to a 1933 article in Time magazine, he was known as the "Master of Swish" because of his flowing style of painting.

Rita de Acosta Lydig

Princess Marthe BibescoCount Robert de Montesquieu

Boldini was born in Ferrara, the son of a painter of religious subjects, and went to Florence in 1862 to study painting, meeting there the realist painters known as the Macchiaioli. Their influence is seen in Boldini's landscapes which show his spontaneous response to nature, although it is for his portraits that he became best known. He attained great success in London as a portraitist.

Marchesa Luisa Casati

Countess of Zichy
Lady Colin Campbell

From 1872 Boldini lived in Paris, where he became a friend of Edgar Degas. He also became the most fashionable portrait painter in Paris in the late 19th century, with a dashing style of painting which shows some Impressionist influence but which most closely resembles the work of his contemporaries John Singer Sargent and Paul Helleu.

Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough and sonJohn Singer Sargent

He was nominated commissioner of the Italian section of the Paris Exposition in 1889, and received the Légion d'honneur for this appointment. He died in Paris in 1931.

On Casati V:

"A black-gloved hand on which several rings sparkled, brushed the veil aside. The face was that of a sinister Pierrot, utterly white, the thin mouth a slit that seemed to be of the same black as the rings encircling the eyes. The high cheekbones, the forward-thrusting chin, the long neck bespoke the apparition's class. Was this the vampire Nosferatu in drag or the daughter of Dracula turned grandmother? Had Miss Havisham discarded her bridal veil for the costume of the Blue Angel? Assuredly it was no Madwoman of Chaillot. On this skeleton tawdry fineries had acquired an elegance beyond the canons of any fashion. This figure could arouse panic but pity, never."

by Philippe Jullian

On Casati IV:

"Her carrot-coloured hair hung in long curls. The enormous agate-black eyes seemed to be eating her thin face. Again she was a vision, a mad vision, surrounded as usual by her black and white greyhounds and a host of charming and utterly useless ornaments. But curiously enough she did not look unnatural. The fantastic garb really suited her. She was so different from other women that ordinary clothes were impossible for her."

by Catherine Barjansky

On Casati III:

"The Marchesa lived partly as a slave to her dream world. She had two venues: her palaces and her aristocratic circles. They served as stages where everyone was usually an actor, but when she made her entrance, they automatically became spectators or background extras."

by Alberto Martini

On Casati II:

"Luisa Casati should be shot, stuffed and displayed in a glass case."

by Augustus John