The Marchesa Casati: Portraits of a Muse [Hardcover]

"I want to be a living work of art," the Marchesa once said. And she didn't stop at anything to shape her life around the eccentric, artistic, somewhat macabre beauty which she craved.
Born Luisa Amman in 1881, she was one of the wealthiest heiresses of her time and went on to marry a Milanese aristocrat, Marchese Camillo Casati. Despite her privileged background, though, Luisa Casati was shy and retiring - until she met Italy's most outrageous poet, Gabriele D'Annunzio.
Her affair with D'Annunzio transformed her. The once plain girl became an intriguing woman with an alluring, if altogether idiosyncratic look. Her deep red lips and huge green eyes, which she accented with thick black kohl, false lashes and even droplets of belladonna, shone on an alabaster face under a shock of red curls. Her sense of fashion was just as sharp - and just as flamboyant. She wore live snakes as necklaces, went for her evening stroll naked beneath thick furs and dressed top to toe in black velvet or white satin to set off her tall, thin, pale figure.
But it was her daring personality that really made her bewitching. Non-conformism was too tame a word to describe her. Her servants wore nothing but gilded leaves, her salons were decorated with animal skins and life-size wax statues of tragic heroines, and her pets were cheetahs and monkeys, which she kept on diamond studded leashes. Nothing was too decadent or over the top for her.
She became the society queen of the early 20th century, wandering the world from Venice to Paris and America, collecting magnificent palazzos and throwing sensational parties wherever she went. Her antics captivated the movers and shakers of her time, including Marcel Proust, Colette and Coco Chanel. Her real fascination, though, was art. Always ready to discover new talent, she had her portrait painted and her likeness sculpted by many great 20th century artists - Alberto Martini depicted her as a flame-haired dream, Adolf de Meyer captured her intense expression in a dramatic photograph, Catherine Barjansky rendered her vitality in wax.
Now this new book, The Marchesa Casati: Portraits of a Muse, brings Casati and her glittering world back to life. Written by Scot D. Ryersson and Michael Orlando Yaccarino, the duo who wrote the Marchesa's biography, Infinite Variety: The Life and Legend of the Marchesa Casati, ten years ago, Portraits of a Muse adds new insights and research to the first book.
But this is far more than a revised biography. Lavishly illustrated, it is a visual cavalcade through the paintings, drawings and photographs that made the Marchesa immortal. More than 200 pictures of famous artwork and private family photographs show every facet of her dazzling extravagance, while sketches by fashion king Karl Lagerfeld reveal her enduring influence as a style icon.
Casati accumulated spectacular debts in her life, saw much of her property seized and auctioned off and sought refuge in London where, despite her financial constraints, she still shocked and fascinated society in equal measure until she died on 1 June 1957. Now Portraits of a muse ensures the glamorous Marchesa continues to bewitch us even from beyond the grave.

This book is a perfect complement to Infinite Variety: The Life and Legend of the Marchesa Casati written by the same authors. It's a collection of over 150 images and pictures of the Marchesa (paintings of the Marchesa, pictures of young Luisa and her family, pictures of the costumes she wore and of her many homes). It is an illustrated biography, so there is also a lot to read (although I still suggest the reading of Infinite Variety). The book is divided in chapters: a useless introduction by Diane von Fustenberg (she might be good with clothes, but she shouldn't be allowed to write); a very good foreword by Judith Thurman (writer and contributor to the New Yorker); an afterword by Luisa's granddaughter. There are the pictures of Luisa taken by Man Ray (gorgeous); some Vogue articles on the parties at the Marchesa's; some of the collages made by Luisa when she was penniless, living in London; many amazing paintings by Boldini; portraits by Augustus John; photos of Luisa in Poiret's costumes; pictures and paintings of the late Luisa; a very big (maybe too big) chapter dedicated to the legend of the Marchesa and all the movies and theatrical pieces about her life (with photos of Liz Taylor, Bergman and so on) as well as photos of fashion collections inspired by the Marchesa (Marchesa, Dior, Lagerfeld, Tom Ford).
This is definitely a nice book to have (especially if you have an empty coffee table in your living room).

As a bedtime reader, it is easy to tell when I am into a page-turner - I go to bed early. A few years ago when reading "Infinite Variety", the authors' first offering on Casati's life and times, I remember announcing to my husband that "I think I'll go and see what the Marchesa is up to tonight", whereupon he gave me that "you're going to bed at 8:30 look?" Unlike "Infinite Variety", "The Marchesa Casati Portraits of a Muse" is not a book to be hungrily devoured. It is more like fine dining - one wants to savor every bite!

It is important to understand both what this book is and what it is not. It is a picture book. But unlike so many of today's pictorial offerings, it is definitely not a poorly researched and bunged- together doorstop. This book was more curated than written. It was done so with so much obvious attention to detail that one can easily imagine its contents on display at a blockbuster National Portrait Gallery show. From the high production values to the tasteful and varied graphics and the clever construction that sets out the Casati legend in dramatic phases, this is a beautiful book.

Two things shine through on every page - the passion the authors have for their subject matter and the care they take to ensure their many pictures appear alongside the corresponding text. This latter point is not a minor one - so many authors of illustrated books bend to publishing economics by binding in picture "sections" which require the reader to madly flip back and forth through many pages in order to relate textual and graphic elements. In this book the echoes of argument between the authors, editors and layout artists ("no, the Van Dongen portrait stays right where it is.... you move the D'Annunzio photo over my dead body".... etc.) are visceral. What results is not only a well-organized and brilliantly engaging book, but a book that is truly an inspired work of art! Bravo!

The closing section, entitled "Afterlife," deserves special mention. It is here that the authors allow their academic integrity to shine as they prove that their book and indeed Casati's life is not just about outrageous exhibitionism. The thesis is that the Marchesa is important in the context of art and cultural history and the examples they provide, whether from Hollywood film, haute couture or even consumer products prove that the lady did indeed leave a legacy that even today inspires "generations of artists around the world....". Double Bravo!

If the first half of the 20th Century is "your" historical period, you are going to love this book. If you own a copy of "Infinite Variety", you need this companion piece. If 20th Century Modern Art is your thing, this is a must on your bookshelf. Otherwise, just get the book and enjoy a most worthwhile art-literary experience!
- Joanne Bergen (aka the artophile)artophile.com

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