Adèle d'Affry, Duchess Castiglione-Colonna, called Marcello

With her bust entitled Bianca Capello, the female aristocratic sculptor Adele d’Affry, called Marcello, caused a sensation. According to the artist, the bust was initially inspired by a distinctive woman she had observed at a wedding in Italy, who had 'a proud bearing, a hawklike nose, and a look both domineering and alluring which she occasionally chose to direct towards some unknown victim of hers.' Shortly before its completion, however, the work morphed into a fictional portrait of Bianca Cappello, a Renaissance beauty who became the mistress and later wife of Francesco di Cosimo de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Bianca Cappello had a notorious reputation both in her lifetime and in the 19th century, having been accused of several murders to achieve her status. Her alleged ruthlessness is reflected in the haughty and formidable air exuded by the imposing, over life-size bust. For the beautifully ornate Renaissance dress, Marcello drew inspiration from a drawing by Michelangelo, of whose art she was an ardent admirer.  

Shown at the sculptor’s Salon debut in 1863, the bust was likened by contemporary commentators to a work by one of the great masters of the Renaissance. Marble copies were ordered instantly, including by the Emperor for Fontainebleau, and several years later Barbedienne began to cast a small edition in bronze. Yet because of the sculptor’s identity as a woman and a member of the wealthy aristocracy, the work received no prize, which was perceived as an injustice by fellow artists such as Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux.

Duchess Castiglione-Colonna was born Adele d’Affry in Switzerland and worked in Rome, Paris, and Givisiez. The name Marcello, a pseudonym, was chosen as a precaution against the male chauvinism of the Salon jury. In 1861, she established a close artistic and personal association with Carpeaux. Following her debut in 1863, Marcello continued to exhibit at the Salon until 1876. Her best-known works include the ambitious Pythia, busts of the Empress Eugenie and Elisabeth of Austria, and a figure of the composer Franz Liszt.

The present bust is one of only a handful of extant marble versions of Marcello’s celebrated masterpiece.

RELATED LITERATURE
C. Y. Pierre, 'Marcello's Heroic Sculpture', in Woman's Art Journal, vol. 22, no. 1, 2001, pp. 14-20; G. A. Mina (ed.), Marcello: Adèle d'Affry (1836-1879), duchessa di Castiglione Colonna, exh. cat. Musée d'art et d'histoire, Fribourg (et al.), 2014, pp. 78-85 and 124