Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy B. Wilson. Tracy,
Speaker 1: everybody knows that I waxed rapsodic all the time about
Speaker 1: she is one of my very favorite artists. This is
Speaker 1: not about her, but she's kind of loosely tied to it.
Speaker 1: We haven't featured an artist biography in a minute, and
Speaker 1: I love them. So today we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: someone who was actually one of le Bron's influences, and
Speaker 1: that is Rosalba Carriera, who had been on my list
Speaker 1: for a bit, and then she also came up in
Speaker 1: a discussion that Tracy and I were having recently. We
Speaker 1: are also coming up on her birthday, so it kind
Speaker 1: of seemed like a good time to talk about her
Speaker 1: surprising level of success in the male dominated European art
Speaker 1: world of the early seventeen hundreds. It's a little surprising
Speaker 1: because most people don't really know about her unless they
Speaker 1: study art history. She's not one of like the great
Speaker 1: painters that you get the list of in a standard
Speaker 1: art class um, and much of what we know about
Speaker 1: the particulars of Cadeta's life come from her diary, which
Speaker 1: was initially published in seventee. That was almost forty years
Speaker 1: after she died, and since she was pretty clearly not
Speaker 1: intending for that diary to be a published biography, her
Speaker 1: life story has largely been pieced together through the notes
Speaker 1: that she was taking in that diary on her daily life,
Speaker 1: and some of those are fairly inconsistent in terms of
Speaker 1: like how she listed her commissions and their status is
Speaker 1: and their payments. So really it was like if you
Speaker 1: have a checklist or some sort of journal where you
Speaker 1: keep track of what's going on in your day. Imagine
Speaker 1: if that got published as your life story, probably people
Speaker 1: would think you or maybe disorganized or just inconsistent, but
Speaker 1: I think most people are. For example, she had a
Speaker 1: system of marking things, but it seemed to change and evolve,
Speaker 1: and there are some notations that no one's really decided
Speaker 1: yet exactly what they meant, whether they included like sitting time,
Speaker 1: or it was like a system to denote what days
Speaker 1: of the business transaction they were at, making it all
Speaker 1: sort of tricky. And additionally, she did not keep any
Speaker 1: sort of consistent diary after the late seventeen twenties kind
Speaker 1: of fell off of that habit. So even what we
Speaker 1: have is kind of a small section of her life.
Speaker 1: But she was incredibly successful in her lifetime, but because
Speaker 1: of the nature of her work and the art that
Speaker 1: she did in her style of art, kind of falling
Speaker 1: out of favor after her lifetime, all of which we
Speaker 1: were going to talk about. Her story has largely been
Speaker 1: forgotten outside of art history circles, so we're going to
Speaker 1: give her a little love today. Rosalba Giovanna Carrietra was
Speaker 1: born in Venice, Italy, on October seventh, sixteen seventy five.
Speaker 1: Some sources list her birthdate as at the end of
Speaker 1: sixteen seventy three. Her father, Andrea Carriatta, was a legal
Speaker 1: clerk in the government, and her mother, Albat Floreste Carrierra,
Speaker 1: was a lacemaker. Rosalba had two sisters. Her sister, Giovannah,
Speaker 1: might have been born in sixteen seventy five, and that
Speaker 1: could have contro beat it to this confusion on the
Speaker 1: birth dates. Her youngest sister was and Zola Cecilia, who
Speaker 1: was born in sixteen seventy seven. And Zola would later
Speaker 1: marry the famed Venetian painter Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini. Yeah, and Zola.
Speaker 1: You will sometimes see her name appear anglicized to Angela,
Speaker 1: so if you're ever looking anything up about them, that's
Speaker 1: what's going on there. Uh and Roslabo most likely learned
Speaker 1: lace making from her mother, but most of the information
Speaker 1: that we have about this is pretty speculative. It is
Speaker 1: certainly possible that she learned this trade. It's also possible
Speaker 1: that her initial artistic efforts were making lace designs for
Speaker 1: her mother, but we don't really know. We do know
Speaker 1: that at some point she turned to visual art. She
Speaker 1: might have been tutored by one or more of Venice's
Speaker 1: prominent artists at the time. These included Antonio Lazari, the
Speaker 1: engraver Dia Montini, and painter Antonio Bellestra. All of them
Speaker 1: have come up as possible mentors, but it's not totally
Speaker 1: clear whether she received formal instruction for many of them.
Speaker 1: She's started to render portraits in miniature on snuff boxes,
Speaker 1: which were popular with tourists in Venice. One of the
Speaker 1: things that made her work in snuffbox portraits unique was
Speaker 1: her use of ivory as a background rather than bellum
Speaker 1: and using tempera as the painting medium. That use of
Speaker 1: ivory eventually became commonplace and miniature portraiture, but she was
Speaker 1: the first known to do this, and her first known
Speaker 1: pastel portrait, which is something she came to be known for,
Speaker 1: was begun most likely in sixte so she was already
Speaker 1: in her twenties at that point, and it was a
Speaker 1: rendering of the artist and art dealer Antonio Mariezanetti. In
Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen. That is a significant jump, but come with us.
Speaker 1: Austin Dobson wrote of Rosalba's choice to work in pastel's,
Speaker 1: a medium that was not particularly popular, and he wrote,
Speaker 1: quote in oil painting, the field was crowded with formidable competitors,
Speaker 1: but the less popular pastel, with its brilliant contrasts and
Speaker 1: silvery transparencies, it's of intins and velvety softness, offered special
Speaker 1: facilities for the display of Rosalba's gifts as well as
Speaker 1: the disguise of her deficiencies. So up to this point
Speaker 1: pastel's were mostly used just for quick drawing studies or
Speaker 1: preparatory sketches to lay out a work that was going
Speaker 1: to later be rendered in oil. Her artwork was quickly
Speaker 1: recognized as special. She was still young and pretty new
Speaker 1: in the field, and within a very short time Rosalba
Speaker 1: had become a member of Rome's prestigious Academia to St. Luca,
Speaker 1: and that was an association that sought to govern, educate
Speaker 1: and elevate the arts. Yeah, that was by some accounts
Speaker 1: within a year of her released starting her art career,
Speaker 1: so that's quite notable. And Kanyetta gained a significant enough
Speaker 1: following that when nobles and royalties visited Venice, they were
Speaker 1: sure to commission portraits, either in miniature or in larger
Speaker 1: size throughout her early career. Her reputation rapidly spread throughout
Speaker 1: Europe due to these tourist commissions. When the wealthy visitors
Speaker 1: then brought their Kieta portraits back come, they showed them
Speaker 1: off to their friends and thus expanded her audience, who
Speaker 1: all hoped that they would eventually get their own Rosalba
Speaker 1: portraits made. Among her commissions in her early career were
Speaker 1: portraits of Maximilian the second of Bavaria and Frederick the
Speaker 1: fourth of Denmark. In seventeen o eight, when Fernando Carlo Gonzaga,
Speaker 1: Duke of Mantua and Montferrat died. Rosalba Carrierra assisted in
Speaker 1: managing his art collection as it was distributed to new owners.
Speaker 1: She cataloged the pieces that were involved and sent the
Speaker 1: lists to buyers. She also copied one of the works
Speaker 1: of painter Guido kang Yashi, which was in the Duke's collection.
Speaker 1: That is a study. Yeah, there's a lot of talk
Speaker 1: of copies throughout her career, like she would make copies
Speaker 1: of other people's work, people would copy her work. It
Speaker 1: did not seem to have the same concern in terms
Speaker 1: of legality or stealing of intellectual property that it does
Speaker 1: at this point. On April first, seventeen nineteen, Rosalba's father died,
Speaker 1: and this was of course a very difficult loss. The
Speaker 1: Kadietta family was incredibly close, but it also, on the
Speaker 1: upside opened up some avenues of opportunity because up to
Speaker 1: that point Rosalba had stayed her entire life in Venice.
Speaker 1: But once he passed, she felt free to travel for
Speaker 1: the first time, which people wanted her to do, and
Speaker 1: she was in her forties at that point. So in
Speaker 1: seventeen twenty, Carrieta, who was encouraged by collector Pierre Krozatte
Speaker 1: traveled to Paris. Kazatt had assured her that Paris would
Speaker 1: just love her, and he was right. We really should
Speaker 1: pause for a moment to acknowledge how influential and important
Speaker 1: Crozatte was in the European art world at the time.
Speaker 1: Over his lifetime, he amassed one of the most impressive
Speaker 1: private art collections in history. In this collection, which was
Speaker 1: augmented and further developed by his nephew after his death,
Speaker 1: was acquired in its entirety by the State Hermitage Museum
Speaker 1: in St. Petersburg, Russia, in seventeen seventy two, is part
Speaker 1: of Catherine the greats private collection. This was one of
Speaker 1: the biggest art acquisitions of its time. The entire collection
Speaker 1: remains at the Hermitage to this day. So all of
Speaker 1: that is to contextualize the fact that when Krozatte told
Speaker 1: Rosalba Carrera that she should come to Paris as his
Speaker 1: guest and it would be good for her career, that
Speaker 1: advice was carrying considerable weights. And in just a moment
Speaker 1: we will talk about this big Paris trip, which most
Speaker 1: art historians note as an incredibly important event in Cardiata's life.
Speaker 1: But first we're going to take a quick sponsor break.
Speaker 1: When she traveled to Paris, Rosalba brought her entire remaining
Speaker 1: family along for the ride. Her sister en Zola and
Speaker 1: husband Giovanni Pellegrini accompanied her, Pellegrini having his own business
Speaker 1: to conduct in Paris on a commission to paint a
Speaker 1: bank ceiling. Her sister Giovanna had begun to assist her
Speaker 1: in her work, and so she traveled with her and
Speaker 1: her mother was also part of their traveling party. While
Speaker 1: in France, or As, Albat painted several dozen commissions, including
Speaker 1: one of Louis the fifteenth, who was still a child
Speaker 1: of ten at the time. While Louis the fourteenth had
Speaker 1: died five years earlier, Louis the fift wasn't actively ruling
Speaker 1: yet due to his young age. This portrait features Louis
Speaker 1: the fifteenth that a red coat with a blue sash
Speaker 1: and a white lace shebaut surrounded by a mane of
Speaker 1: curly hair. He has large brown eyes that become the
Speaker 1: focal point of the portrait. There rendered in slightly sharper
Speaker 1: detail than his other features. Yeah, there's an eyelash situation
Speaker 1: going on in that painting that I love. Kenyata's trip
Speaker 1: to Paris also resulted in her being invited to join
Speaker 1: the French Royal Academy on the merit of that portrait
Speaker 1: of Louis. Once the members of the Academy saw her
Speaker 1: rendering of what they were calling the Dauphin. Again there's
Speaker 1: that weird thing with him not quite being king yet
Speaker 1: her acceptance was, according to her own diary, instant and unanimous,
Speaker 1: and this was truly a moment of note, as women
Speaker 1: were rarely admitted to the Academy, and I think on
Speaker 1: previous occasions there had been a lot of voting involved.
Speaker 1: Carrera sent pastel to the Royal Academy in Paris as
Speaker 1: part of her admittance as a member. It was called
Speaker 1: Nymph de la Suite Dapolon. It's in the collection of
Speaker 1: the Louver today. While she had been accepted based on
Speaker 1: her portrait of Louis the fifteenth, she wanted to send
Speaker 1: a different work, which she shipped later on from Venice,
Speaker 1: and she wrote of this portrait quote, I have tried
Speaker 1: to depict a young girl, knowing that to youth many
Speaker 1: faults are forgiven. She also stands for a nymph of
Speaker 1: Apollo's choir, who goes on her own part to offer
Speaker 1: to the Academy of Paris a wreath of laurels, judging
Speaker 1: that body alone worthy to wear it and to preside
Speaker 1: over all the others. There were a number of reasons
Speaker 1: that the timing was perfect for Rosalba to visit Paris.
Speaker 1: One was that there was this new trend among the
Speaker 1: aristocracy to buy their own Paris apartments rather than living
Speaker 1: at Versailles. There was also a rising merchant class had
Speaker 1: also found themselves suddenly having property, and they all needed
Speaker 1: art to decorate those spaces. But of course the wall
Speaker 1: space available in apartments was smaller than what they had
Speaker 1: been used to uh Tracy and I Bendeversai. Those walls
Speaker 1: are large and ready for big art, so in these
Speaker 1: smaller spaces they needed appropriately sized artwork. So a portraitis
Speaker 1: that was brought to the city and lauded by one
Speaker 1: of the continent's most well known and well respected art
Speaker 1: collectors was in high demand, indeed, thus her many many commissions.
Speaker 1: The other factors had to do with the shift and
Speaker 1: appreciation for pastelists and their work. Before this era, oil
Speaker 1: painting had been far more popular Because production of plate
Speaker 1: glass had had advanced significantly, delicate pastel works could be
Speaker 1: preserved without fear that the powdery pigment would flake or
Speaker 1: would fall away. For the backing that made larger portrait
Speaker 1: pieces possible instead of just the miniatures that had started
Speaker 1: carrier As career. And One other signific contributor was the
Speaker 1: advancement in the production of pastel crayons. As pastel work
Speaker 1: became more and more highly regarded, in part because of
Speaker 1: Carerietta's skill and popularity, and industry of art suppliers rose
Speaker 1: up to meet it. Crayon maker started producing more and
Speaker 1: more colors, and artists could easily carry them to clients
Speaker 1: homes to work. There was no drying time, and it
Speaker 1: did not take up nearly as much space to invite
Speaker 1: a pastel artist into your home to make your portrait
Speaker 1: as it would have an oil painter who might require
Speaker 1: a lot more sittings and also need to leave that
Speaker 1: work in situ between those sittings, occupying a chunk of
Speaker 1: your house. Despite her great success in France, though she
Speaker 1: wanted to return to Venice after a year of being
Speaker 1: the toast of Paris. This also coincided with a significant
Speaker 1: financial crash in France that had been brewing for some
Speaker 1: time under the regent, the Duke of Orleans. Rosalba Carrera
Speaker 1: had ties to the Scottish economist John Law, who served
Speaker 1: as controller of France's fine ances at the Duke of
Speaker 1: Orleans appointment. Law had been responsible for the creation of
Speaker 1: the financial disaster known as the Mississippi Bubble, which was
Speaker 1: the catalyst for this whole crash. He ended up fleeing
Speaker 1: Paris in the dead of night. Kitty at A sort
Speaker 1: of captured Law's last few days in Paris in her journal,
Speaker 1: describing days that involved meeting with him as the bank
Speaker 1: notes that he had been issuing were completely devalued and
Speaker 1: riots began in the city. There's one entry where she
Speaker 1: just starts bad day. She had been working on a
Speaker 1: commission for him, so she was pretty immediately adjacent to
Speaker 1: the family as they were planning to leave, although she
Speaker 1: really doesn't delve into the specifics of the economy in
Speaker 1: her accounts of each day. But once he left, she
Speaker 1: just kind of busied herself with all of the other
Speaker 1: work that she had been hired to do. He as
Speaker 1: much as they had been very entwined in each other's
Speaker 1: lives up to that point. Once he's gone, she kind
Speaker 1: of just wipes the slate clean on him and doesn't
Speaker 1: really refer to him again. She had among her other
Speaker 1: commissions a portrait of the artist Antoine Watteau, but also
Speaker 1: work for a number of other nobles that she wasn't
Speaker 1: really all that interested in. So in seventeen twenty one,
Speaker 1: having made a nice bit of money and worked tirelessly
Speaker 1: for more than a year, Rosalba returned home to Italy.
Speaker 1: As a little historical trivia side note, Antoine Watteau is
Speaker 1: where the name Watteau pleats come from, which, if you
Speaker 1: look at pictures of dresses from this century and Marie
Speaker 1: Antoinette dresses as well, those long pleates that start at
Speaker 1: the back of the neck and and carry down in
Speaker 1: a cascade, those are named after him because he painted
Speaker 1: them so beautifully. In seventeen Rosalba went to Madenna, Italy,
Speaker 1: and created several portraits of the Princess and Riquetta des Day,
Speaker 1: as well as the rest of the duke's daughters. The
Speaker 1: intent was that these portraits would be sent around a
Speaker 1: potential marriage matches, which is a pretty common practice, and
Speaker 1: Riquetto was one of the young women who was on
Speaker 1: the short list of potential wives for Louis the fifteenth
Speaker 1: of France, but Holly wasn't able to discern whether he
Speaker 1: got one of these portrait it's and part of his
Speaker 1: search for a suitable queen. And by the time Rosalba
Speaker 1: returned home to Venice from Modena, she had a raft
Speaker 1: of commissions waiting for her, ordered from all over Europe,
Speaker 1: particularly in England. People had really fallen in love with
Speaker 1: her work when she had become one of the wealthiest
Speaker 1: and most successful artists of her time, working in a
Speaker 1: medium that no one had been especially interested in before
Speaker 1: she began creating portraits. One of the things that's interesting
Speaker 1: is it in some cases people would send her portraits
Speaker 1: that other artists had made of them and said like,
Speaker 1: can you do a better version of this? Uh? And
Speaker 1: she also had a constant list of people who wanted
Speaker 1: to be taught by her. In seventeen thirty, she traveled
Speaker 1: to Vienna and became a favorite of Charles the sixth
Speaker 1: Holy Roman Emperor. Elizabeth Christine, who was the Empress, asked
Speaker 1: her to teach her after the artist had completed her
Speaker 1: portrait after Vienna, Carriaa returned once again to Venice, and
Speaker 1: for the next several years her life was really a
Speaker 1: steady stream of work. And then in seventeen thirty seven
Speaker 1: everything changed when Rosalba's sister, Giovanna died on May nine. Giovanna,
Speaker 1: as we mentioned, had assisted Rosalba in her studio and
Speaker 1: the two of them were very close. They are often
Speaker 1: referred to as best friends and confidants. They were so
Speaker 1: close that in one of Kadrietta's self portraits that she
Speaker 1: produced in seventeen fifteen, she had chosen to include a
Speaker 1: portrait of her sister. She is holding that portrait in
Speaker 1: her hands so that they're kind of together in this
Speaker 1: self portrait. And then to add another tragedy. In seventeen
Speaker 1: thirty eight, their mother, Alba, also died, and this combination
Speaker 1: of grief as well as the loss of her trusted assistant,
Speaker 1: really slowed Krietta's productivity significantly. By the seventeen forties, another
Speaker 1: problem arose that further stunted her work. She started to
Speaker 1: have some trouble in her vision. By seventeen forty five
Speaker 1: or seventeen forty six. At the end of the decade,
Speaker 1: she had surgery to try to correct her cataracts. This
Speaker 1: was probably what's called couching, and that involves surgically depressing
Speaker 1: the opaque lens to the bottom of the eye to
Speaker 1: let the light in. Around the time that carrier I
Speaker 1: had her surgery, a French physician named Jacques Davielle was
Speaker 1: experimenting with cataract extraction, but it's not likely that she
Speaker 1: had this new procedure. Some accounts suggest that the surgery
Speaker 1: was what caused her total blindness, but it's more likely
Speaker 1: that the couching didn't affect any permanent fix. After the surgery,
Speaker 1: she had written to a friend that she seemed quite hopeful. Regardless,
Speaker 1: any improvement that she might have had in her vision
Speaker 1: was pretty short lived, and within a few years her
Speaker 1: renowned and successful career had ended because she was completely blind. Yeah,
Speaker 1: couching is one of those procedures that actually still happens
Speaker 1: today in less advanced countries. It's not the best way
Speaker 1: to deal with cataracts, but it is sort of fascinating
Speaker 1: if you're into eye science. And during this late period
Speaker 1: of her work in the seventeen forties, while her site
Speaker 1: was failing, Rosalba produced what is believed to have been
Speaker 1: her last self portrait, and this portrait is UH fifty
Speaker 1: six point seven by FORTI was about twenty two by
Speaker 1: eighteen inches to give you a sense of the size
Speaker 1: of the portrait she was doing. It's rendered on buff
Speaker 1: paper and in it she has aged and the tone
Speaker 1: of the pieces quite casual. She actually made this for
Speaker 1: a friend. But what's interesting is that even though her
Speaker 1: eyesight was going, her technique remains as striking as ever.
Speaker 1: She rendered the lace and jewelry really beautifully through the
Speaker 1: careful use of texture to mimic detail. Her work is
Speaker 1: one of those things that when you get right up
Speaker 1: to it, it just looks like a bunch of strokes,
Speaker 1: and then you just take one step back and everything
Speaker 1: kind of snaps into a really beautiful focus with some
Speaker 1: softness to a lot of the pieces. And she was
Speaker 1: still just as good, even really struggling with her eyesight
Speaker 1: as she had been earlier in her life. And the
Speaker 1: years that followed, Rose Alba lived in her home in
Speaker 1: Venice with her surviving sister, who had been widowed. She
Speaker 1: dictated her correspondence to her friends and had news and
Speaker 1: literature read to her, but she was unwilling to go
Speaker 1: out very often. In December of seventeen fifty six, she
Speaker 1: made out her will, leaving everything she had to her
Speaker 1: sister and a few other relatives. And Rosalba died on
Speaker 1: April fifteen, seventeen fifty seven, in Venice, at the age
Speaker 1: of eighty one. She was buried next to her sister Giovanna,
Speaker 1: in the church of San Vito and San Modesto. She
Speaker 1: had popularized pastel portraiture to a point where she was
Speaker 1: one of the most copied artists of all time, and
Speaker 1: in a way, the timing of her passing was fortuitous.
Speaker 1: She did not live quite long enough to see the
Speaker 1: rococo frills that were so much of a part of
Speaker 1: her work fall out of favor. But the timing of
Speaker 1: her death, which took places the early seeds of neo
Speaker 1: Classicism were being sown, they contributed to her name falling
Speaker 1: out of the public eye and to relative obscurity, especially
Speaker 1: compared to some of her male counterparts. Still, she has
Speaker 1: continued to delight art historians even in recent years, and
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about that after we take another
Speaker 1: quick sponsor break. One of the things that gives Rosalbaccaria's
Speaker 1: work It's Ethereal Beauty, also added a dimension of danger
Speaker 1: to shipping her pieces around to their various destinations. Pastels are,
Speaker 1: of course, just sticks of pigment and a filler that
Speaker 1: makes them opaque that retained their crayon shape through some
Speaker 1: sort of binding medium. Pastel works don't require drying time,
Speaker 1: but they can be easily smudged or distorted, and often
Speaker 1: in letters or diary notes, Cardieta mentioned concerns about her
Speaker 1: portraits making it to their recipients. Intact, Rosalba was so
Speaker 1: concerned about the safety of her works that she even
Speaker 1: included little good luck charms when she shipped them in.
Speaker 1: One of these was discovered by the Royal Collection Trust,
Speaker 1: and that's the organization that's tasked with the management and
Speaker 1: care of the British Royal Art collection and residences. In
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty two, George the Third purchased the entire collection
Speaker 1: of Joseph Smith, who was a British art agent and
Speaker 1: collector who lived in Venice. During Carrierra's career, she produced
Speaker 1: several works for Smith over the years, including Uppersonification of Winter,
Speaker 1: which Carrierrat produced in the seventeen twenties, and this piece
Speaker 1: of work features a young woman with dark hair wrapped
Speaker 1: in a fur lined cloak, and the cloak is falling
Speaker 1: off of one shoulder, so her shoulder and her neck
Speaker 1: are exposed, and her faces at an angle, and it's
Speaker 1: quite striking, and it is rendered on blue paper, although
Speaker 1: you really can't see very much actual blue through the pastel,
Speaker 1: and the young woman looks just luminous. The softness of
Speaker 1: the pastel's make her skin look utterly velvety and also
Speaker 1: sort of glowy, while details like the ribbons in her
Speaker 1: her hair and her earring look sharper in contrast with
Speaker 1: glints of light on them. And Joseph Smith described this
Speaker 1: work in his list of his collection as quote the
Speaker 1: most excellent this Virtuosa ever painted. A conservator working with
Speaker 1: this artwork discovered a tiny card tucked in between the
Speaker 1: arts wooden frame and the canvas liner. This is a
Speaker 1: small card four point three by three point three centimeters
Speaker 1: and it features the three Magi, which was a topic
Speaker 1: that Carriero was very fond of. And this card wasn't
Speaker 1: exactly a surprise. There is plenty of documentation that Resolva
Speaker 1: placed images of the magi into parcels with her works.
Speaker 1: When she shipped them, she would tell associates that all
Speaker 1: of her works that traveled with their little saints that
Speaker 1: Sentini in Italian always got to their destinations safe and sound.
Speaker 1: As the conservator worked with this piece extra carefully because
Speaker 1: of the fragile nature of pastels, they noticed the small
Speaker 1: piece of paper and it was immediately recognized as one
Speaker 1: of carrier's good luck Sanserini cards. And because pastel's continue
Speaker 1: to be a topic of conservation discussions in the modern era,
Speaker 1: and because often the bases used for older pastel aren't
Speaker 1: are fragile themselves, so like the paperbackings, there are not
Speaker 1: a huge number of special exhibits featuring pastels that were
Speaker 1: made during Resolva's time, including hers. The lack of varnish
Speaker 1: like you wouldn't varnish a pastel, means that fading is
Speaker 1: a real concern for some of them, and exposure to
Speaker 1: light has to be carefully managed, so that also contributes
Speaker 1: to the difficulty of shipping pieces for special exhibitions. But
Speaker 1: the good news is that because she was so popular
Speaker 1: and prolific during her time, and her work was collected
Speaker 1: so avidly throughout Europe. You can find ros Alba carrier
Speaker 1: As works and many museums throughout the world, as well
Speaker 1: as checking out her work online. We already mentioned the
Speaker 1: Heritage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia and the Louver in Paris,
Speaker 1: and her work is also in the collections at the
Speaker 1: National Gallery of Ireland, the met in New York, the
Speaker 1: Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Harvard Art Museums.
Speaker 1: The trick is making sure the work is on display
Speaker 1: before you go, because pastels require really careful preservations, so
Speaker 1: they're not always on display for the public. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're particularly beautiful, but it's one of those things where
Speaker 1: even like the vibration of moving it from spot to
Speaker 1: spot can affect how it looks, which makes them all
Speaker 1: the more special in my opinion. So I have a
Speaker 1: little bit of listener mail. Uh this is from our
Speaker 1: listener Melissa, and she writes, Hi, Tracy and Holly, I
Speaker 1: absolutely love your podcast. I'm a scientist by training, but
Speaker 1: absolutely love learning about everything. I'd probably still be in
Speaker 1: university taking courses if I didn't have bills to pay,
Speaker 1: which may explain why I chose to teach at a University.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, by the way, for being an
Speaker 1: educator from us. Recently, my dad was cleaning out my
Speaker 1: great aunt's home after she passed away. She was a
Speaker 1: career woman who worked for the New Yorker. She was
Speaker 1: quite the collector and amateur historian. One of the fines
Speaker 1: that had me exclaiming, much to my dad's confusion, Hollywood Love.
Speaker 1: This was a trio of Prince by Charles Adams of
Speaker 1: the Adams Family. I quickly had to explain my love
Speaker 1: for the podcast and reminded him that one of my
Speaker 1: Christmas gift requests last year was to attend the live
Speaker 1: show in Seattle on safety coffins. He may or may
Speaker 1: not have thought I was a bit too enthusiastic. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I have attached a quick picture I managed to grab
Speaker 1: the Prince before they were included in a pile of
Speaker 1: items being set to be assessed, restored and raimed. She
Speaker 1: also gives us a fun suggestion, and then she sends
Speaker 1: best to you both and will continue to eagerly listen
Speaker 1: to every podcast on your show. She also attached a
Speaker 1: photo of her katzuzu, which is pretty great because here's
Speaker 1: another secret, HOLLI trivia thing. We used to have a
Speaker 1: cat named ze Su. I almost named her Zuzu. And anyway,
Speaker 1: thank you so much, Melissa. Uh, I love that. It's
Speaker 1: it's to my heart sort of Charles Adams season now
Speaker 1: that we're into fall, and even though his work was
Speaker 1: going on throughout the year, because the Adams family is
Speaker 1: a little bit um, you know, creepy and cookie. I
Speaker 1: think of them as especially fondly at Halloween time. Uh,
Speaker 1: and I think we're already for some Charles Adams fun.
Speaker 1: So if you would like to write to us, you
Speaker 1: can do so at History Podcast at how stof works
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also find us pretty much everywhere
Speaker 1: on social media as Missed in History, and you should
Speaker 1: visit our website that is Missed in History dot com,
Speaker 1: where you will find every episode of the show ever,
Speaker 1: including uh show notes for any of the ones that
Speaker 1: Tracy and I have worked on. If you would like
Speaker 1: to subscribe to the podcast, we would like you to
Speaker 1: do that as well. You can do that on the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, at Apple Podcasts, or wherever it
Speaker 1: is that you listen. Stuff you Missed in History Class
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radios. How Stuff Works
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