Palma Bucarelli

Rome Trip

Recently, I went on holiday to Rome and visited the Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea; (The National Gallery of Modern Art). It is an imposing building that displays 1100 paintings and sculptures from the 19th and 20th centuries. It is such a large building that the work isn’t overwhelmingly displayed so it feels light and airy. Apparently, this holds the largest collection of contemporary art in Italy.

It was a surprise to find near the exit, a small display of evening dresses. They had been donated by Palma Bucarelli. I had no idea who she was so this is what I’ve found out.

Palma Bucarelli was born in 1910 in Rome. Her connection with the Modern Art Gallery was that she was the director from 1943 until 1975. My first thoughts were, my goodness, she must have been a strong, determined woman to be in such an important position by the age of 32 years. She was an art historian, curator and administrator however this didn’t quite make sense with the display of evening dresses until I saw photographs of her wearing them to various functions. I then realised that she wore her commitment to Italian art.

Evening Dress, Maria Antonelli 1960

Maria Antonelli, was born in 1903 and began her career in Rome. She became a fashion designer who pushed for new horizons, taking part in the first Italian fashion shows. Before she was 30 years old she had created her own fashion house and in her late 40’s took part in the 1951 fashion show in Florence to give a clear message to the world that Italian fashion could rival the French. Before her death in 1969, she had produced designs which typified the classic 1960s shapes.

The Golden Evening Dress, has a pattern of colourfully beaded and sequined sun bursts. The golden fabric is textured with strips containing crosses and these “bursts” sit on top to create a heavily embellished garment. The beads vary in size. Some of them are spherical and others are like dodecahedrons. Some are mirrored so they reflect the stunning reds and turquoises in the coloured beading. There are gold embroidered threads creating the sun rays and along these, sequins are added.

Evening Dress, Sorelle Botti 1956

Augusta Carlotta and Fernanda Botti were two sisters who ran the haute couture tailor’s shop, Sorelle Botti, in Rome (1911-1959). I found it hard to capture in my sketch the pink salmon of this evening dress and cape.

From the display, it was difficult to see much of the evening dress itself. It had an amazing satin sheen and a wide skirt. The breath-taking piece of this outfit is the cape which is salmon pink with huge amounts of gold foliage and chrysanthemum- like flowers and buds covering it completely.

Museo Boncompagni Ludovisi

These evening dresses were donated to the Boncompagni Ludovisi Decorative Art Museum in 1996. Palma Bucarelli died in 1998. The museum is part of the National Gallery of Modern Art and houses decorative arts, costume and Italian fashion. As well as her own Italian fashion collection, Palma also donated her own personal collection of art to the National Gallery of Modern Art. From what little I’ve read about her she was a strong woman who supported strong women. She was a supporter of abstract and avant-garde works and protected the gallery’s collection during the second world war by storing artworks in buildings such as the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome.

Thank you for reading my October Blog. It feels very much like Autumn here rather than the sunny thirty degrees in Rome.