"Genius has no sex": The sculpture of Adele D'Affry, the Duchess Castiglione Colonna, a.k.a. Marcello (1836--1879).
Item
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Title
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"Genius has no sex": The sculpture of Adele D'Affry, the Duchess Castiglione Colonna, a.k.a. Marcello (1836--1879).
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Identifier
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AAI3286575
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identifier
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3286575
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Creator
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Pierre, Caterina Y.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Patricia Mainardi
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Date
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2005
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Art History | Women's Studies | Museology
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Abstract
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This dissertation investigates the life and sculptural oeuvre of the nineteenth-century artist Marcello (Adele d'Affry, Duchess Castiglione Colonna, 1836-1879), one of the most prominent sculptors active in Second Empire Paris. Born to a historically important Swiss family, she married an Italian Duke and gained the aristocratic title that afforded her many social opportunities. Despite her high social class, she faced many obstacles common to women artists of the period. She managed, however, to eventually establish herself with success within the difficult, gender-biased, and often misunderstood medium of contemporary sculpture. By refusing to align herself with a specific style or master, she was able to explore a multitude of non-traditional subjects and themes. Her professional use of a masculine pseudonym was a major factor in shaping her artistic persona and signified her desire to be treated as an equal among male artists.;The dissertation is divided into six chapters. The first chapter includes an overview of the literature on the history of sculpture. Additionally, special focus is given in the chapter to various themes with regard to women's role in the medium and to education, mechanical techniques, and a discussion of the reputation and position of sculpture during the long nineteenth century. This is followed by a brief biographical chapter (Two), which includes a discussion of Marcello's Swiss origins and the details surrounding her choice of the pseudonym and how it affected her public and critical reception. The next three chapters (Three, Four and Five) deal with Marcello's sculpture from a thematic angle, dealing with her portraits of her family, friends, and contemporaries; her representations of women from history and mythology as heroic (and by extension "masculine") figures; and her artworks that were influenced by or connected to music and operatic characters. The final chapter (Six) is a historiography of the original Musee Marcello, a collection of works by the artist and from her personal collection, given by bequest to the canton of Fribourg. This museum, which no longer exists in its original location or arrangement, is reconstructed in this chapter.;Finally the text includes four appendices. Appendix A outlines the foundries and assistants that Marcello employed during her career. Capsule biographies of the artists whose work was included in the Musee Marcello are provided in Appendix B. A checklist of the contents of the original Musee Marcello is furnished in Appendix C. Lastly, Appendix D is a chronology of the major events affecting the Musee Marcello from 1877 to the present.;Apart from the sculptures themselves, this study is organized around two important types of primary source documents. The first type is Marcello's personal writings, which survive in the form of diaries, letters, her unfinished memoirs and her last will and testament; most of this material has never been published. The second type consists of the critical reviews of Marcello's sculptures as written and published by some of the foremost critics of the age. The bringing together of these historical documents with the subjects and themes of her sculptures creates a social and historical context around the works that has not before been presented in a study of the artist's oeuvre. By presenting the sculptures in a thematic, rather than a strictly chronological, manner, scholars can better understand Marcello's own perception and comprehension of her contemporary world through her works of art.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
