Valentine's Day, a kiss and a selfie in front of portraits of two lovers at Treviso's Santa Caterina Museum

A kiss and a selfie in front of two masterpieces by Alberto Martini, the portraits of two protagonists of a great love story: this is the proposal that the Santa Caterina Museum in Treviso makes for Valentine’s Day, the feast of lovers.

The one between Wally, the second-born daughter of maestro Arturo Toscanini, and Count Emanuele di Castelbarco, a nobleman much older than the composer’s sparkling daughter and long since married and the father of three children, is an “impossible” and scandalous love story. Between them it was instant love at first sight. Wally’s determination led to the happy ending: in 1931 Emanuele separated from his wife and applied for Hungarian nationality (a stratagem devised with the help of Gabriele D’Annunzio) so that he could join Wally Toscanini, thus also silencing the rumors surrounding that scandalous relationship. Emanuele bound himself to Wally in marriage, celebrated in Hungary, from which Emanuela was born.

A selfie next to these two lovers is therefore a good omen.

“She, Wally, will be at the Santa Caterina Museum in the magnificent, powerful portrait dedicated to her by Alberto Martini, a work considered among the Italian Art Deco masterpieces,” explains Civic Museums director Fabrizio Malachin. “It is a large pastel 131 centimeters high and 204 centimeters wide and is from 1925. She appears in it in the yellow silk ball gown worn for a social evening at Casa Visconti. He portrays her reclining on a fine sofa, her face framed by a curious headdress, 4 strands of pearls. Beautiful, haughty, a goddess sure of her own beauty and her power over men.” “He,” Malachin continues, “equally portrayed by Alberto Martini in the same 1925, appears as a posed, handsome nobleman of the time, dressed as a knight in a flamboyant red jacket and with a group of books resting on the table at his right (horses and books, his passions), in a grandiose pastel of 238 x 130 cm. These are a pair of true masterpieces that return to view together after nearly 40 years: they were exhibited as a pair only twice, at the 1926 Venice Biennale and the 1985-1986 Milan exhibition.”

Friday, Feb. 9 and Saturday, Feb. 10, and Tuesday, Feb. 13 to Wednesday, Feb. 14, for the pair one ticket is valid for two people. Sunday, Feb. 11, free special opening.

Image: Alberto Martini, Portrait of Wally Toscanini (private collection)

Valentine's Day, a kiss and a selfie in front of portraits of two lovers at Treviso's Santa Caterina Museum

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