Topazia Alliata

Topazia Alliata
Born (1913-09-05)September 5, 1913
Palermo, Italy
Died November 23, 2015(2015-11-23) (aged 102)
Rome, Italy
Occupation Painter, art curator
Spouse(s)
Fosco Maraini
(m. 1935; div. 1970)
Children

Topazia Alliata (Italian pronunciation: [toˈpattsja alˈljaːta]; 5 September 1913 – 23 November 2015) was an Italian painter, art curator and writer.

Biography

Alliata was born in Palermo from Prince Enrico Alliata di Villafranca, Duke of Salaparuta, and a former opera singer, Amelia "Sonia" Ortuzar Olivares, the daughter of a Chilean diplomat.[1] After graduating from liceo artistico, Alliata studied fine arts at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Palermo, where she was a fellow of Renato Guttuso, who portrayed her in several paintings.[1]

In 1935 she married Fosco Maraini, at the time an unknown scholar, who would later become an important anthropologist, giving birth one year later to their first child, Dacia Maraini.[1] In 1941 they moved to Japan, where in 1943 they were deported in a concentration camp in Nagoya because they had refused to swear allegiance to the Republic of Salò.[1][2] Released in September 1945, in 1946 they returned in Italy, settling in Bagheria, where Topazia engaged in the family business, the Salaparuta's Crow Wines.[2]

In 1955 the couple split (but since Italian laws forbade it at the time, they were only able to divorce in 1970), and Alliata moved to Rome, where she continued her work as a painter. In 1959 she founded the Galleria Topazia Alliata in Trastevere, where she mainly exhibited avant-garde painters.[1][2] She died in Rome on 23 November 2015, aged 102.[3]

Alliata was also the author of several books, notably Love holidays. Quaderni d'amore e di viaggi, a partly photographic autobiography published in 2014 by Rizzoli.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Paola Nicita (24 November 2015). "Morta a 102 anni Topazia Alliata, madre di Dacia Maraini". La Repubblica (in Italian). Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Paolo Conti (25 November 2015). "Topazia Alliata , pittrice cosmopolita in viaggio nel Novecento". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  3. ↑ "Princess Topazia Alliata obituary". thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 15 October 2017.

Further reading

  • Toni Maraini (2003). Ricordi d'arte e prigionia di Topazia Alliata (in Italian). Sellerio. ISBN 9788838918612.
  • Anna Maria Ruta (2010). Topazia Alliata – Una vita nel segno dell'arte (in Italian). Edizioni Kalòs. ISBN 9788889224922.
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