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| Pierre Louis-Pierson, Scherzo di Follia, 1863-1866 |
Arguably the first performance artist and first “goth chick”, the Countess took control of her own image to an obsessive and eventually self-detrimental level. What if Lady Gaga Gaga-d just a little too much? Her path to fame rose as quickly as it eventually fell.
Virginia Oldoini: The
Countess of Castiglione, commissioned around 400 images of herself over 4 decades
by the otherwise bland in style Parisian photographer Pierre-Louis Pierson. It is documented that her role in these
photographs was beyond mere model and subject, and that all images were
conceptualized and designed in detail by the Countess
herself. Her goal being to use her own
image to gain social status and political gain for Italy.
“Yet the countess’s project extended beyond social strategizing for a
male-dominated world and even the recognition that photographs had an important
role to play in the society as a whole.” (Rexer p. 69). She desired to be portrayed not just as
sitter for a photograph, but as fully-fledged artist in control of the creation of her own image.
"Both during her lifetime and after, the Countess has been variously labeled as a narcissist, a victim, a courtesan, and Italian patriot, a social climber, a fashionista, a hysteric, an adventuress, a Madonna, a recluse, a sociopath - and to add insult to injury- an unfaithful wife and a neglectful mother." -Robert Flynn Johnson, Countess de Castiglione: The Allure of Creative Self-Absorption.
The Countess lost her family, wealth, and influence
over society and eventually became the equivalent of a scandalized 19th century tabloid
subject. She lived her last 20 years alone in poverty, going out only at night dressed in black veils, but her influence stretches beyond this short
period of fame. 20th and 21st century artists Francesca Woodman,
Cindy Sherman, Nikki S. Lee, Gillian
Wearing, all have created extensive bodies of photographs dedicated to the
performance of identity and it's relationship to the photographic gaze.
Francesca Woodman, Untitled, Providence, 1976
Cindy Sherman, Self-Portrait with Sun Tan, 2003
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Nikki S. Lee, The Ohio Project (8), 1999
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| Gillian Wearing, Rock n Roll 70, 2015/2016 |
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