The Artwork of the Month of the Museo della Scuola Romana - March 2022

In this self-portrait, Katy Castellucci represents herself behind the door of her studio on the roof terrace of her home at number 3 Via Gregoriana in Rome, near Piazza di Spagna.

The artist, portrayed from the front behind a glass door, turns her eyes towards the observer with a smile, her right hand resting on the handle and her left hand raised to face height in a sign of greeting. The artist is seeking direct contact, but the French window is still closed and the glass, although transparent, still constitutes a barrier.

A sensitive and troubled individual, subject during his life at periods of depression, Castellucci's depiction of himself on the door seems to represent the return of a newfound serenity following a nervous breakdown.
In Castellucci's painting a moment of everyday life is suspended in a timeless reality, transformed by "a pictorial emotion", as we read in the exhibition brochure of the artist's first personal exhibition at the Galleria della Cometa in 1936, where the painting was shown for the first time.
The figure's delicate and uncertain beauty is created by a careful combination of figure and environment, in a simple solution where the uniform and measured use of colour gives the image its surface.
Castellucci offers us "a suspended, enchanted form, and yet faithful to the truth, without artificial devices, [...] all adhering to the existential and psychological motif of the subject" (Duccio Trombadori).

The artist's passion for painting, as a requirement that puts recognition in second place, led her to paint without satisfying public expectations, producing works characterised by emotional purity and a strong intimacy. As she herself said: "When you devote yourself to art, it is like taking a vow, like entering a convent. A painter is like a monk, a nun if she is a woman; no other interest or environment should distract him'.
The paintingwas the property of the artist until his death, when it passed to his sister Guenda. In 2006 it came to the Museo della Scuola Romana thanks to a donation by Alessandro Pagliero, the artist's nephew, and his wife Ernestina.

Katy Castellucci has been an independent painter since her youth, during whose time she mainly dedicated herself to dance. It was only in 1930, after meeting Mafai and Scipione, that she decided to start a career as a painter, frequenting the lively cultural environment of the capital and in particular the young artists such as Guttuso, Fazzini and Ziveri. With Ziveri she formed a long and tormented love affair, as well as an artistic partnership that led them to share stylistic choices. During the years of the Second World War, he took part in the Resistance and began to dedicate himself to teaching, which would become his main commitment in his later years. He only sporadically returned to exhibiting neo-Cubist works.

The work in discussion, especially important in the museum's itinerary, will soon be subjected to an essential conservative restoration project that will remove it from public view for a few weeks from the second half of March. Its publication on the web is therefore a useful temporary tool to replace a visit to the site, as well as a specific opportunity to learn more.

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