Muse: Venice
Marquesa Luisa Casati
In 1910, Luisa bought Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, mounted upon the riverbank of Venice. It served as a glamourous setting for her infamously excessive masked costume balls, a home to her menagerie of exotic animals, an escapade from her loveless marriage, a rendezvous for her many lovers and a cabinet of her morbid collection of curiosities.
The marquesa would often been sighted on the canals of Venice, on her gondola illuminated by a flaming torch. She was decked in her exquisite finery and accompanied by her diamond collared leopards.
She was painted, photographed, sculpted and clothed by some of the most celebrated artists and designers including Giovanni Boldini, Man Ray, Jacob Epstein and Leon Baskt.
The Palazzo would later be bought by Peggy Guggenheim. The Guggenheim museum houses Peggy’s futurist collection of art.
“I want to be a living work of art.” - Luisa Casati
Photo by Man Ray of Luisa Casati
Reading material: Infinite Variety: The Life & Legend of the Marchesa Casati by Scot D. Ryersson, Michael Orlando Yaccarino
