The Ambassador’s Wife (1937)

Autographed on the lower right: “Brunelleschi Bologna October 1937 XV”

Provenance: Heir of countess Maria Teresa Filippi Gabardi

Umberto Brunelleschi, “a symbol and emblem of Italian Art Deco”¹, through his graphic experiments conducted in the fields of illustration and painting, is one of the greatest interpreters of the Parisian decorative climate of the early twentieth century. Trained at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, he immediately shows a keen interest in symbolic themes of Böcklin’s origins and moves away from official painting to approach the Secessionist movements, known through the art magazines “Jugend” and “The Studio”. Arriving in Paris for the 1900 Paris Exposition, he begins working as an illustrator for various magazines, with a signature pseudonym of “Aroun-al-Rascid”. He applies his graceful and synthetic symbolism and his à plat colourism not only to the graphic productions, but to his pictorial ones as well, participating in the Salon des Indépendants starting from 1902, with works of Pre-Raphaelite reminiscence.

Success comes quickly and intensifies in 1910, when Brunelleschi exhibits the panels inspired by Verlaine’s Fêtes galantes, defined as “charmantes” (charming) by Apollinaire, at the Salon des Humoristes. On this occasion, he inaugurates what will become the true leitmotif of his production, that of eighteenth-century Venetian masks, a seductive theme that allows the lightness and vaporous nature of the scenes to emerge, combined with the orientalist and exotic fantasies of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. His work as an illustrator is soon coupled with that of a set designer, which he conducted between Paris and New York with increasing critical acclaim. Added to this is his frequent participation in the Venice Biennale from 1914 – the year in which he makes his debut with a solo exhibition of graphics and paintings – until 1938.

The 1920s see an accentuation of linearism, formal simplification, and the refinement of the au pochoir colouring technique, his signature feature that takes him to the heights of Art Deco illustration, especially during his collaboration with the periodical “La Guirlande”.

Among billboards featuring female figures, paintings, fashion sketches or set designs, limited edition gouaches and illustrations, his activity continues incessantly throughout the decade, until the 1930s, when the bodies begin to acquire more depth and the two-dimensional graphic handling is gradually replaced by volumes and chiaroscuro effects that follow the trends of the return to order. The portrait La moglie dell’ambasciatore dates back to the end of the 1930s and therefore at the peak of Brunelleschi’s artistic maturity. The work, dated 1937, depicts Countess Maria Teresa Filippi Gabardi di Guastalla, wife of the Italian Consul in Tangier, Antonio Cottafavi, and reveals the extraordinary ability of Brunelleschi as a portraitist. The elegant silhouette of the woman with a seductive and severe face stands out against the bright blue background. She is adorned by her black dress with embossed silver buttons and by the traditional Berber garment, the cloak called burnous or aselham, which recalls her family link with Morocco and her official role as wife of the ambassador.

A detail of costume which also represents that reference to exoticism that is completely congenial to the painter. At the same time, next to her and in the background at the bottom right, one can see the rolling hills of Reggio Emilia and Pieve di Guastalla which demonstrate the countess’ bond with her land of origin. As a highly skilled set designer, Brunelleschi created a sort of painted backdrop to welcome and highlight the refined and enigmatic protagonist of the scene in the foreground, the same expedient used in the painting presented at the 1938 Venice Biennale La Commedia è finita (The Comedy is over). In both works the painter demonstrates to be still very much attached to the colour brilliance of Art Deco and to the handling of clean backgrounds of light and colour that fit together as in a cloisonné, while the volumes now also emerge with energy, in a still and suspended composition reminiscent of the fairy-tale and silent atmospheres of Magic Realism.

Elena Lago

¹ Umberto Brunelleschi (1879-1949), auction catalogue curated by G. Ercoli and A. Berni (Florence, Gonnelli Casa d’Aste, 15 October 2011), Florence, Gonnelli Casa d’Aste, 2011, p. n. n.