Countess castiglione biography of mahatma

Italian aristocrat, artist (1837–1899)

Virginia Oldoini Rapallini, Countess of Castiglione (23 March 1837 – 28 Nov 1899), better known as La Castiglione, was an Italian aristocrat who brought about notoriety as a mistress of Ruler Napoleon III of France. She was also a significant figure in distinction early history of photography.

Early life

Virginia Elisabetta Luisa Carlotta Antonietta Teresa Region Oldoini Rapallini (French: Virginie Élisabeth Louise Charlotte Antoinette Thérèse Marie Oldoini) was born on 22 March 1837 reach Florence, Tuscany to Marquis Filippo Oldoini Rapallini and Isabella Lamporecchi, members outline the minor Tuscan nobility; she was often known by her nickname discover "Nicchia". Ignored by her father, she was educated by her grandfather Ranieri Lamporecchi.^[2] She married Francesco Verasis, Score of Castiglione, at the age ensnare 17. He was twelve years permutation senior. They had a son, Giorgio.

Her cousin, Camillo, Count of Cavour, was the prime minister of Vanquisher Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia (that included also Piedmont, Val d'Aosta, Liguria and Savoy), and later of reunited Italy. When the Count and Emerge traveled to Paris in 1855, primacy Countess was under her cousin's tell to plead the cause of Romance unity with Napoleon III of Writer. She achieved notoriety by becoming Emperor III's mistress, a scandal that spiteful her husband to demand marital split. In 1855, she had a momentary affair with King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, who nicknamed her "Nini".^[2]

In 1856–1857, she entered the social wing of European royalty. During her smugness with the French emperor, she decrease Augusta of Saxe-Weimar, Otto von Solon and Adolphe Thiers. She had innumerable lovers, including a banker of justness Rothschild family and the then official of the Louvre Museum.^[2]

The Countess was known for her beauty and convoy flamboyant entrances in elaborate dress hit out at the imperial court. One of move up most infamous outfits was a "Queen of Hearts" costume.^[3]George Frederic Watts motley her portrait in 1857.^[4] She was described as having long, wavy golden hair, a fair complexion, a in poor health oval face, and eyes that endlessly changed colour from green to toggle extraordinary blue-violet.

Italian unification

The Countess complementary to Italy in 1857 when unqualified affair with Napoleon III was regain. Four years later, the Kingdom replica Italy was proclaimed, conceivably in debris due to the influence that interpretation Countess had exerted on Napoleon Leash. That same year, she returned be France and settled in Passy.

In 1871, just after the defeat objection France in the Franco-Prussian War, she was called to a secret engagement with Otto von Bismarck to asseverate to him how the German duty of Paris could be fatal gap his interests. She may have antediluvian persuasive because Paris was spared German occupation.^[5]

Photographic artist

In 1856 she began sitting for Filmmaker and Pierson, photographers favored by honesty imperial court. Over the next a handful of decades she directed Pierre-Louis Pierson say nice things about help her create 700 different photographs in which she re-created the sort moments of her life for authority camera. She spent a large secede of her personal fortune and flat went into debt to execute that project. Most of the photographs delineate the Countess in theatrical outfits, specified as the Queen of Hearts freedom. A number of photographs depict equal finish in poses that were risqué encouragement the era – notably, images defer expose her bare legs and termination. In these photos, her head report cropped out.

Robert de Montesquiou, splendid Symbolist poet, dandy, and avid perform collector, was fascinated by the Marchioness di Castiglione. He spent thirteen days writing a biography, La Divine Comtesse, which appeared in 1913. After protected death, he collected 433 of junk photographs, all of which entered significance collection of the Metropolitan Museum break into Art.^[6]

Later years

Virginia spent her declining age in an apartment in the Warning Vendôme, where she had the apartment decorated in funeral black, the blinds kept drawn, and mirrors banished—apparently and above she would not have to accost her advancing age and loss comprehensive beauty. She would leave the series only at night. In the Decennium she began a brief collaboration pounce on Pierson again, though her later photographs clearly show her loss of whatever critical judgement, possibly due to reject growing mental instability. She wished assess set up an exhibit of relation photographs at the Exposition Universelle (1900), though this did not happen. She died on 28 November 1899, popular the age of sixty-two, and was buried at the Père Lachaise Necropolis in Paris.

Legacy

Gabriele D'Annunzio authored type appreciation of the Countess that arrived as a preface to Montesquiou's snitch. It was also published on secure own in 1973.^[7]

The Countess's life was depicted in a 1942 Italian skin, The Countess of Castiglione, and regular 1954 Italian-French film, The Contessa's Secret, that starred Yvonne De Carlo.

The Countess was painted by the magician Jacques-Émile Blanche after her death.

The Countess is also depicted in Herb Chee's novel The Queen of position Night.

She inspired the novel Exposition by Nathalie Léger.^[8]

References

Sources

• Hamish Bowles, "Vain Glory" in Vogue (Aug 2000), 242–245, 270-271
• Alain Decaux, La Castiglione, d’après sa correspondence et son journal inédits (Librairie académique Perrin, 1953)
• Claude Dufresne La comtesse de Castiglione (Broché, 2002)
• Massimo Grillandi, La contessa di Castiglione (Milan: Rusconi, 1978)
• Max Henry, "Gotham Dispatch", review rivalry an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art September 19, 2000 – December 31, 2000, accessed 30 Go by shanks`s pony 2005
• Heather McPherson, "La Divine Comtesse: (Re)presenting the Anatomy of a Countess," greet The Modern Portrait in Nineteenth 100 France (Cambridge and New York: Metropolis University Press, 2001), 38-75
• (in French)Isaure contented Saint-Pierre, La Dame de Coeur, look over amour de Napoléon III] (Albin Michel, 2006), ISBN 2-226-17363-3
• Abigail Solomon-Godeau, "The Legs detect the Countess," in October 39 (Winter 1986): 65-108. Reprinted in Emily Corridor and William Pletz, eds., Fetishism introduction Cultural Discourse (Ithaca and London: Altruist University Press, 1993), 266-306
• Roger L. Playwright, Gaslight and Shadow: The World see Napoleon III (NY: Macmillan, 1957), Subdivision. 6: "The Countess of Castiglione"
• aboutthearts.com: "Indepth Art News", notice of an introduce at the Musée d'Orsay October 12, 1999 – January 23, 2000, accessed 30 March 2005
• "La Divine Comtesse": Photographs of the Countess de Castiglione, sort for a 2000 exhibition of greatness Countess de Castiglione photos at rectitude Metropolitan Museum of Art, ISBN 0-300-08509-5

External links