1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:05,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim 2 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:18,040 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankie. Listener discretion advised. Most nights, 3 00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:22,040 Speaker 1: the woman covered in veils goes out walking under cover 4 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: of darkness. It's Paris eighteen seventy nine. Sometimes the woman's 5 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:32,800 Speaker 1: dog is on a leash beside her. Occasionally a police 6 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:37,680 Speaker 1: officer stops her. She is malingering with vagrants? Is she 7 00:00:37,760 --> 00:00:42,440 Speaker 1: a vagrant? She scoffs and walks on. She will name 8 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:46,600 Speaker 1: a series of vindictive photos after the area police. Later, 9 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:51,960 Speaker 1: she promises herself, with thoughts of this sweet justice in 10 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:56,520 Speaker 1: her head, she walks on. Finally, the dog pulls at 11 00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:02,880 Speaker 1: the leash. There home twenty six beasts vendant, Furtively trying 12 00:01:02,920 --> 00:01:06,840 Speaker 1: to keep the veil across her face. The woman opens 13 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:11,280 Speaker 1: the first locked door to her apartment, then the second, 14 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:16,039 Speaker 1: then the third. She closes herself in with the dog. 15 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:22,640 Speaker 1: Only once she's safely locked away behind three doors does 16 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:26,640 Speaker 1: she removed the veils. She doesn't have to worry about 17 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 1: seeing what she looks like. Her walls are painted black, 18 00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:36,319 Speaker 1: she has no mirrors or reflective surfaces. She's an old woman, 19 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:41,000 Speaker 1: she believes, though really she's only in her forties. In 20 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:44,959 Speaker 1: her mind, she only wants to see herself as she was, 21 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:50,280 Speaker 1: and photos of her younger self cover the walls. The 22 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: woman looks at one of the photographs and breathes a 23 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:59,480 Speaker 1: sigh of relief. Yes, there she was a young woman 24 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:04,760 Speaker 1: who's beauty was famous in Italy and then France. Pale, 25 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:09,519 Speaker 1: round cheeks, eyes rumored to be either bright green or 26 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:15,720 Speaker 1: piercing violet, slim waist, draped in evening gowns and costumes. 27 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:20,600 Speaker 1: A smile crosses the older woman's lips before she closes 28 00:02:20,639 --> 00:02:26,000 Speaker 1: her eyes for the night. She is Virginia Oldoni, the 29 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:30,720 Speaker 1: Countess of Castilione. In her youth, she was as famous 30 00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:34,400 Speaker 1: for her beauty as she was her vanity. She was 31 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:38,800 Speaker 1: the mistress of King Vittorio Emmanuel, the second King of 32 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:43,040 Speaker 1: Sardinia and later of Italy, but that wasn't her most 33 00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:49,080 Speaker 1: prominent conquest. As a teenager, she was personally dispatched from 34 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:53,560 Speaker 1: Italy to France to become the mistress of Emperor Louis 35 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:58,320 Speaker 1: Napoleon the Third, to whisper into his ear that he 36 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:04,200 Speaker 1: must support Italian unification. She had taken him easily, She 37 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:09,040 Speaker 1: had done her duty. She had been kicked out of court. Eventually, yes, 38 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:14,000 Speaker 1: but the Kingdom of Italy had united and Louis Napoleon 39 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:19,560 Speaker 1: had supported it. But as she grew older, she grew strange, 40 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:24,480 Speaker 1: perhaps mentally ill. Unable to handle the loss of her 41 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:29,600 Speaker 1: youth and political role, she bankrupted her husband and left him. 42 00:03:29,639 --> 00:03:33,600 Speaker 1: Before he died, she dressed head to foot as a 43 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:39,120 Speaker 1: hermit in her last public appearance, before consigning herself to 44 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:43,240 Speaker 1: walk the streets of Paris only by night. She became 45 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:49,080 Speaker 1: obsessed with recreating her own images in photography, in art 46 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:53,280 Speaker 1: form then in its early days, she was dressed in 47 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:58,320 Speaker 1: scenes from her own past life, directed and retouched the 48 00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:03,680 Speaker 1: photographs herself, and she continued to take these photos long 49 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:08,240 Speaker 1: after everyone believed that she was too old to pull 50 00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:13,279 Speaker 1: it off. After her death, one man became so obsessed 51 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: with her that he bought plaster casts of her legs 52 00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:22,160 Speaker 1: and displayed them in a self made museum. In the 53 00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:27,719 Speaker 1: history of photography, La Castilione was like an early Cindy Sherman. 54 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:31,240 Speaker 1: There were no selfies in the second half of the 55 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:35,640 Speaker 1: nineteenth century. Being photographed was a big deal for a 56 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:38,960 Speaker 1: private person who was not a celebrity, and though she 57 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 1: had been renowned for a time. La Castilione may be 58 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:49,000 Speaker 1: the single most photographed private person of the eighteen hundreds. 59 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:53,799 Speaker 1: The story of the Countess Virginia Aldoni is the story 60 00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:56,359 Speaker 1: of what it meant to be a woman whose youth 61 00:04:56,480 --> 00:05:01,479 Speaker 1: and beauty was used to attract importance, men to play 62 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:07,239 Speaker 1: political games, and whose youth and beauty ultimately faded as 63 00:05:07,279 --> 00:05:11,360 Speaker 1: they tend to do. But there were no plastic surgery 64 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:16,240 Speaker 1: drop in centers offering botox and a bikini wax in one. 65 00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:21,640 Speaker 1: But there was early photography, There was costume paint, and 66 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:26,120 Speaker 1: there was a woman testing how much control she actually 67 00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:30,960 Speaker 1: had over her own image, over the fading of her 68 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:37,720 Speaker 1: famous light. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is noble blood. 69 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:50,960 Speaker 1: Virginia Elizabeta Luisa Carlata Antonetta Teresa Maria Aldone Rappollini was 70 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:56,160 Speaker 1: born on March twenty second, eighteen thirty seven, to an 71 00:05:56,160 --> 00:06:02,279 Speaker 1: aristocratic family in Florence. By age sixteen, her parents encouraged 72 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:08,680 Speaker 1: her to marry Francesco Barassis Assinari, Count of Castiglioni. One 73 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:12,680 Speaker 1: year after the wedding, at age seventeen, in eighteen fifty five, 74 00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:17,279 Speaker 1: the new Countess gave birth to their only child, Georgio, 75 00:06:18,279 --> 00:06:21,359 Speaker 1: the Count, was a widower more than a decade older 76 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:25,680 Speaker 1: than Virginia. He was infatuated with her, but she never 77 00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:30,480 Speaker 1: loved him and barely pretended to. Young Virginia had always 78 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:34,720 Speaker 1: been a great beauty, and she knew it. Her prenup 79 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:39,120 Speaker 1: guaranteed that she could still go about in society however 80 00:06:39,160 --> 00:06:43,719 Speaker 1: she wanted. So. If Virginia's parents hoped that marriage would 81 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:48,400 Speaker 1: rein in ment attraction to their daughter, they were sorely mistaken. 82 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:54,000 Speaker 1: The Countess was young, beautiful, and vain. She spoke Italian 83 00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:58,160 Speaker 1: and French and unaccented English, and she was never going 84 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:01,360 Speaker 1: to be happy sitting home as the wife of an 85 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:06,200 Speaker 1: old count. Within a year of Giorgio's birth, she moved 86 00:07:06,360 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 1: to Paris. Officially, she was visiting her cousin. Unofficially, she 87 00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:16,960 Speaker 1: had a much more important mission. When Virginia was born, 88 00:07:17,440 --> 00:07:21,360 Speaker 1: the area we know today as modern Italy was comprised 89 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:25,760 Speaker 1: of several states controlled by Naples, Austria, and the Pope. 90 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:30,680 Speaker 1: Florence was located in the Kingdom of Sardinia and Piedmont, 91 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:35,800 Speaker 1: ruled by King Vittorio Emmanuel the Second. The king was 92 00:07:36,120 --> 00:07:40,040 Speaker 1: only one of the many lovers that Virginia would take 93 00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:44,600 Speaker 1: over the years. It was his Prime minister Camillo Cavour 94 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:48,720 Speaker 1: who hatched the plan for the countess. She would be 95 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:53,320 Speaker 1: sent to France, where she would intimately involve herself in 96 00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:58,000 Speaker 1: the court of Emperor Louis Napoleon the Third. She would, 97 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:02,080 Speaker 1: in short, get the ear of the French Emperor. Then 98 00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:05,880 Speaker 1: she would convince him to support the unification of the 99 00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:11,440 Speaker 1: Kingdom of Italy under Vittorio Emmanuel. The Countess wasn't yet 100 00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:15,760 Speaker 1: twenty when she received her assignment. She must have felt 101 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:20,120 Speaker 1: at least partially thrilled to receive a secret code from 102 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:23,400 Speaker 1: the Prime Minister so that she could communicate with him 103 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:28,160 Speaker 1: while in Paris. She would have listened carefully to his instructions. 104 00:08:28,480 --> 00:08:33,920 Speaker 1: Quote succeed by whatever means you wish, but succeed, And 105 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:38,280 Speaker 1: she must have understood whatever means you wish. He had said, 106 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:42,360 Speaker 1: she was a great beauty. More than anything else he 107 00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:50,000 Speaker 1: meant seduction. On February fifth, eighteen fifty six, then eighteen 108 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:55,440 Speaker 1: year old Countess Virginia Castilioni arrived at a masked ball 109 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:59,599 Speaker 1: on the Champs Elise. The room was filled with a 110 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:04,360 Speaker 1: wristocrats in Mardi Gras masks. The Countess knew that she 111 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:08,000 Speaker 1: was a vision, so she ignored the women in the room. 112 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:12,079 Speaker 1: She looked right past most of them, and then caught 113 00:09:12,120 --> 00:09:15,960 Speaker 1: the eye of the only man she cared about, the Emperor, 114 00:09:16,520 --> 00:09:21,840 Speaker 1: Louis Napoleon the Third. Yes he was married to Empress Eugenie, 115 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:25,800 Speaker 1: who was eight months pregnant. Yes, he was involved and 116 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:30,240 Speaker 1: distracted in ending the Crimean War. It didn't matter. She 117 00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:35,680 Speaker 1: smiled at him flirtatiously, and he turned toward her. In 118 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:39,920 Speaker 1: the months to come, sellacious rumors would swirl about the 119 00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:45,559 Speaker 1: Countess's beauty, her vanity, her elaborate costumes, and her seduction 120 00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:52,000 Speaker 1: of France's emperor, one general said quote. Infatuated with herself, 121 00:09:52,559 --> 00:09:56,640 Speaker 1: always classically draped, she would appear at gatherings like a 122 00:09:56,720 --> 00:10:00,960 Speaker 1: goddess descended from the clouds. She would allow people to 123 00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:04,520 Speaker 1: admire her as if she were a shrine, but as 124 00:10:04,559 --> 00:10:08,560 Speaker 1: soon as the Emperor or Empress approached, her face would 125 00:10:08,600 --> 00:10:12,320 Speaker 1: be transformed. She seemed to be saying to all, I 126 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:16,720 Speaker 1: am not here for you. I am of a different essence. 127 00:10:17,559 --> 00:10:21,880 Speaker 1: I know only the sovereign and his consort. End quote. 128 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:27,560 Speaker 1: In June eighteen fifty six, Empress Eugenie made the mistake 129 00:10:27,679 --> 00:10:32,280 Speaker 1: of inviting Virginia to a garden party. Louis Napoleon invited 130 00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:35,240 Speaker 1: the Countess to a boat ride, rowed her out to 131 00:10:35,280 --> 00:10:39,680 Speaker 1: an island in the lake, and disappeared with her for hours. 132 00:10:40,440 --> 00:10:46,880 Speaker 1: It was an incredibly flagrant public outing of their affair. Unsurprisingly, 133 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:52,600 Speaker 1: Virginia found herself hated by the Empress. On February seventeenth, 134 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:57,280 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty seven, Virginia had arrived at a costume ble 135 00:10:57,720 --> 00:11:02,160 Speaker 1: dressed as the Queen of Hearts. Scandalously for the time, 136 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:07,360 Speaker 1: she wore no corset and no crinoline. Chains around the 137 00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:14,160 Speaker 1: bodice of her dress formed heart shapes, the neckline plunged shockingly. 138 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:19,599 Speaker 1: She wore her hair down around her shoulders. Empress Eugenie 139 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:24,959 Speaker 1: had cutting words for her. The heart is a little low, Countess. 140 00:11:25,960 --> 00:11:30,160 Speaker 1: But the Empress wasn't always so cutting. She despaired about 141 00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:33,200 Speaker 1: her husband's affair with the Countess, at one point saying, 142 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:37,080 Speaker 1: I have tried everything, even to make him jealous. It 143 00:11:37,240 --> 00:11:40,920 Speaker 1: made no difference. I can't take any more. But a 144 00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:45,560 Speaker 1: man with a wandering eye has a tendency to wander. 145 00:11:46,400 --> 00:11:50,480 Speaker 1: Only ten days after the Countess's success as the Queen 146 00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:54,079 Speaker 1: of hearts. At the eighteen fifty seven Mardi Gras ball, 147 00:11:54,679 --> 00:12:00,840 Speaker 1: Louis Napoleon's affections wandered on to someone new, the Countess Wallesca, 148 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:05,640 Speaker 1: an affair that would continue for seven years. After that, 149 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:10,240 Speaker 1: La Castiliani's days at the French court were numbered. It 150 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:13,880 Speaker 1: may have been her first taste of not being the favorite, 151 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:18,520 Speaker 1: of being passed over for another woman. She didn't like it. 152 00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:22,480 Speaker 1: She had not forgotten her charge to whisper in the 153 00:12:22,480 --> 00:12:27,040 Speaker 1: Emperor's ear about unification of Italy. She believed that she 154 00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:32,480 Speaker 1: was playing an important geopolitical role. Unfortunately for the Countess, 155 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:37,280 Speaker 1: the French used that role against her. On April sixth, 156 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:42,400 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty seven, Louis Napoleon was leaving Virginia's residence at 157 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:46,600 Speaker 1: three in the morning when the Italian Carbonari made an 158 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:51,000 Speaker 1: attempt on his life. Virginia almost certainly had nothing to 159 00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:55,079 Speaker 1: do with the assassination attempt, but Louis Napoleon was through 160 00:12:55,160 --> 00:12:59,040 Speaker 1: with her anyway. She was banished from the French court 161 00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:04,080 Speaker 1: and would have of the Emperor's ear no longer. The 162 00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:09,000 Speaker 1: Countess Castilioni's banishment from French court was the beginning of 163 00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:12,920 Speaker 1: the end of her very brief life as a political figure. 164 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:17,120 Speaker 1: Her husband went back to Italy, but she refused to 165 00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:20,319 Speaker 1: live with him there. She and her son Georgia were 166 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:25,439 Speaker 1: living separately in Turin when in eighteen fifty nine Louis 167 00:13:25,520 --> 00:13:30,800 Speaker 1: Napoleon sent French troops in support of Italy against Austria. 168 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:35,320 Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty one, Victorio Emmanuel became king of a 169 00:13:35,480 --> 00:13:39,719 Speaker 1: united Italy. The Countess believed she had played an important 170 00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:45,040 Speaker 1: role in this victory. Historians tend not to agree. In 171 00:13:45,080 --> 00:13:49,360 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one, the Countess and Georgio returned to France 172 00:13:49,400 --> 00:13:53,280 Speaker 1: again without her husband, the count They moved to a 173 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:58,400 Speaker 1: suburb of Paris called Passe, near the photographer Pierre Louis Pierson, 174 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:02,640 Speaker 1: and here this second act of her life began, the 175 00:14:02,679 --> 00:14:09,880 Speaker 1: part that she is actually most famous. For five years earlier, 176 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:12,560 Speaker 1: when she had been the favorite of the Emperor, she 177 00:14:12,679 --> 00:14:16,560 Speaker 1: had met with Pearson for a simple photography session in 178 00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:20,680 Speaker 1: which she wore a standard black velvet dress. But that 179 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:24,120 Speaker 1: was then. Now she was out of favor with the 180 00:14:24,160 --> 00:14:28,840 Speaker 1: Emperor and she felt her great beauty was going to waste, 181 00:14:28,920 --> 00:14:31,840 Speaker 1: so she went back to the Mayor and Pearson portrait 182 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:37,240 Speaker 1: studio and for the next several years, she and Pearson 183 00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:42,280 Speaker 1: undertook one of the largest serieses of photographs of a 184 00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:46,240 Speaker 1: private person in the nineteenth century. She had him take 185 00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:51,920 Speaker 1: over four hundred photographs, all of herself, and not just 186 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:56,640 Speaker 1: any photos of herself. In these photographs, she recreated the 187 00:14:56,680 --> 00:15:00,760 Speaker 1: costumes of her earlier victories at court. She wore the 188 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:05,160 Speaker 1: famous Queen of Hearts dress all over again. It doesn't 189 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:08,360 Speaker 1: take a freud who was actually born the year the 190 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:12,040 Speaker 1: Countess first went to Pearson to analyze that she was 191 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:15,000 Speaker 1: trying to live in the past. She was trying to 192 00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:19,280 Speaker 1: document her beauty. To prove it in front of the camera, 193 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:23,880 Speaker 1: the Countess posed herself in costume as a peasant, a 194 00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:28,200 Speaker 1: noble woman fleeing a fire, characters from novels and plays. 195 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:32,760 Speaker 1: She lounged on chases and sat up in beds. Some 196 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:38,640 Speaker 1: especially salacious photos show her bearing gasp her naked leg. 197 00:15:39,480 --> 00:15:43,560 Speaker 1: At the time, the only women's legs that a respectable 198 00:15:43,640 --> 00:15:47,880 Speaker 1: person might see outside the bedroom or the brothel was 199 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:51,400 Speaker 1: at the ballet, and even then that could be almost 200 00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:56,200 Speaker 1: as titillating as pornography. So too, as in the so 201 00:15:56,360 --> 00:15:59,640 Speaker 1: many bedroom selfies that are sent across the Internet today, 202 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:02,880 Speaker 1: the photos that she took in which she showed her 203 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:08,160 Speaker 1: feet tended not to also include her face. Through all 204 00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:12,600 Speaker 1: this work in the photography studio, the Countess's famous vanity 205 00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:16,840 Speaker 1: only increased. At one point, she asked Pearson if he 206 00:16:16,960 --> 00:16:21,760 Speaker 1: fully recognized that God is quote making you the collaborator 207 00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:25,760 Speaker 1: of the most beautiful creature who has ever existed since 208 00:16:25,800 --> 00:16:29,680 Speaker 1: the beginning of time end quote. It's quotes like that 209 00:16:29,680 --> 00:16:33,040 Speaker 1: that I do feel our important context here, because often 210 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:36,880 Speaker 1: I think history has a knee jerk reaction to label 211 00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:41,320 Speaker 1: beautiful women as vain. But in this case it is 212 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:46,160 Speaker 1: a label that seems especially apt. In a technique common 213 00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:49,800 Speaker 1: for the time, the Countess ensured that the photos were 214 00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:53,560 Speaker 1: painted over, so they were touched up and in color. 215 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:58,160 Speaker 1: She had Pearson photograph her son too, But even there, 216 00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:02,840 Speaker 1: her famous vanity was unre relenting. The Countess would dress 217 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:07,679 Speaker 1: Giorgio up as her. A series of photos show him, 218 00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:12,080 Speaker 1: at age seven, in a dress, his long hair flower pinned, 219 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:16,480 Speaker 1: clearly meant to look like his mother. Of the one 220 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:20,200 Speaker 1: hundred and ten photos of Georgio, some show him alone, 221 00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:25,200 Speaker 1: some with the Countess, and only one also includes his father. 222 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:30,119 Speaker 1: During all this time, the Countess had taken lover after lover, 223 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:35,359 Speaker 1: but love itself seemingly was out of the question. I 224 00:17:35,359 --> 00:17:38,800 Speaker 1: don't believe in love, she wrote. It's a malady that 225 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:43,679 Speaker 1: comes and goes little by little, or an intermittent fever. 226 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:48,520 Speaker 1: She was not loved in the Parisian court. Years into 227 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:51,439 Speaker 1: her return to France, at last she was invited to 228 00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:56,840 Speaker 1: one ball. In eighteen sixty three, she appeared as the 229 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:01,600 Speaker 1: Queen of Etruria, a costume that she expected would dazzle 230 00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:08,080 Speaker 1: but instead scandalized. Rumors spread that she'd almost been naked. 231 00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:12,240 Speaker 1: To modern eyes, of course, the photos of the costume 232 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:18,000 Speaker 1: are laughably clothed. Only her arm from the shoulder is bare, 233 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:23,560 Speaker 1: and I will include photos in the episode script on 234 00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:28,600 Speaker 1: our Patreon. Hearing about the costume from his post in Turin, 235 00:18:28,760 --> 00:18:34,360 Speaker 1: her now estranged husband threatened to take their son, saying quote, 236 00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:37,639 Speaker 1: I want to spare myself the status of husband to 237 00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:42,200 Speaker 1: the beautiful countess. Shortly after, she mailed him a print 238 00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:46,679 Speaker 1: of herself in the Queen of Etruria costume, this time 239 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:51,240 Speaker 1: holding a dagger. The photo is so striking that nearly 240 00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:55,639 Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty years later, the Metropolitan Museum of 241 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:59,119 Speaker 1: Art used it as the cover of their catalog for 242 00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:02,320 Speaker 1: the show about her in the year two thousand. The 243 00:19:02,359 --> 00:19:09,040 Speaker 1: Countess titled the photo herself. She named it Vengeance. After that, 244 00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:13,160 Speaker 1: the Countess appeared to go a little mad. In April 245 00:19:13,240 --> 00:19:17,719 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three, two months after the quote unquote Naked 246 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:22,240 Speaker 1: Queen of Vitrurian debacle, she arrived at one last event. 247 00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:27,119 Speaker 1: Rumor swirled that she would show up naked. Instead, she 248 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:31,080 Speaker 1: dressed head to toe as a nun. She called herself 249 00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:35,359 Speaker 1: the Hermit of Passe and was accompanied by a violinist 250 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:40,480 Speaker 1: playing Chopin's Funeral March. We can conceive of these events 251 00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:44,879 Speaker 1: kind of like a modern met ball think of Kim Kardashian, 252 00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:49,879 Speaker 1: who shows up sometimes channeling Marilyn Monroe and sometimes shrouded 253 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:54,040 Speaker 1: in black from head to toe. The Countess CASTILIONI did 254 00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:57,600 Speaker 1: the same thing from the Queen of Hearts to complete 255 00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:04,040 Speaker 1: hermit nun. She was an all or nothing person, all drama, nothing, 256 00:20:04,119 --> 00:20:09,000 Speaker 1: balanced or in between. Later psychoanalysts would coin the term 257 00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:14,240 Speaker 1: Madonna horr complex, though the Countess viewed herself more as 258 00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:19,520 Speaker 1: a goddess or queen, a divine creation, and if she wasn't, 259 00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:23,160 Speaker 1: then she didn't want to be seen at all. Her 260 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:27,920 Speaker 1: appearance as the Hermit of Pesse marked her final dramatic 261 00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:32,360 Speaker 1: showing at a public ball. In eighteen sixty seven, her 262 00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:36,399 Speaker 1: husband died. The next year, she locked herself away in 263 00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:40,440 Speaker 1: the apartment at the Place Bendome, with the three doors 264 00:20:40,560 --> 00:20:44,720 Speaker 1: between her and the world, and no mirrors and all 265 00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:49,080 Speaker 1: black walls, which she covered in photos of her younger self. 266 00:20:49,960 --> 00:20:54,240 Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy nine, her son died suddenly at the 267 00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:58,840 Speaker 1: age of twenty four of smallpox. After that, if she 268 00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:02,760 Speaker 1: did venture out, it was only under cover of night, 269 00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:07,919 Speaker 1: shrouded in veils, with the company only of her dogs. 270 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:14,040 Speaker 1: In the eighteen nineties, the Countess returned to Pearson's studio, 271 00:21:14,840 --> 00:21:18,560 Speaker 1: now in her fifties. The years had not been kind 272 00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:22,479 Speaker 1: to the once famous beauty, but she came back to 273 00:21:22,560 --> 00:21:28,439 Speaker 1: Pearson wanting what she had always wanted, more photographs, and 274 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:32,800 Speaker 1: so began a smaller series of photographs of the Countess 275 00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:37,280 Speaker 1: wearing a younger woman's costumes, sometimes looking in a mirror 276 00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:43,040 Speaker 1: or lifting her sleeve to contemplate her aged ugly arm. 277 00:21:43,560 --> 00:21:48,159 Speaker 1: I say ugly in quotes, according to the catalogs and 278 00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:53,040 Speaker 1: articles that I could find. Everyone talks about how horribly 279 00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:58,040 Speaker 1: old and decrepit she had become. The met Catalog calls 280 00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:04,160 Speaker 1: the photos quote a sorry spectacle, painful documents charting the 281 00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:08,320 Speaker 1: course of a physical and mental decline. Her face has 282 00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:13,119 Speaker 1: coarsened and her waist has thickened. A history of the 283 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:17,879 Speaker 1: modern portrait in nineteenth century France goes further, quote, it 284 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:23,200 Speaker 1: is difficult to comprehend what masochistic impulse could have incited 285 00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:28,840 Speaker 1: her stout, toothless and virtually bald, to reappear before the 286 00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:35,360 Speaker 1: camera and create grotesque countertypes of the earlier portraits. End quote. 287 00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:40,480 Speaker 1: Here's the thing, listener, something weird I believe is going 288 00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:44,720 Speaker 1: on here with history. The photos used as illustrations of 289 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:49,600 Speaker 1: her grotesquerie show a woman who is yes, clearly in 290 00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:55,080 Speaker 1: her fifties, whose mouth yes, is closed, perhaps not showing teeth, 291 00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:59,160 Speaker 1: and who yes, has gained some weight since her twenties. 292 00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:03,879 Speaker 1: Maybe some of the off the shoulder sleeves and necklines 293 00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:08,240 Speaker 1: aren't totally becoming, or perhaps they indicate that she's trying 294 00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:12,240 Speaker 1: too hard. Maybe her eyes do look a little haunted 295 00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:17,359 Speaker 1: or desperate or even mad, but she totally has hair, 296 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:22,160 Speaker 1: or she's wearing a very convincing hair piece. The dresses 297 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:27,520 Speaker 1: fit basically fine, and she's not ugly, certainly not grotesque, 298 00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:31,960 Speaker 1: And if her expression is a little vacant, well, if 299 00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,560 Speaker 1: you flip back in the catalog, I can tell you 300 00:23:35,119 --> 00:23:39,320 Speaker 1: it's basically the same gaze she had in her younger photos. 301 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:44,000 Speaker 1: I believe art history itself seems to have fallen into 302 00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:48,439 Speaker 1: the trap of which they accuse the countess disdaining a 303 00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:52,959 Speaker 1: woman feeling unable to accept her for the simple crime 304 00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:57,560 Speaker 1: of aging. She is only grotesque. I think if you 305 00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:00,400 Speaker 1: think a woman in her fifties who looks like she's 306 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:04,000 Speaker 1: in her fifties is grotesque, or if you think a 307 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,600 Speaker 1: woman in her fifties who wants to be looked at 308 00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:11,160 Speaker 1: is grotesque, I happen to think not. It's a good 309 00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:16,640 Speaker 1: lesson in seeking primary sources, which because their photographs remain 310 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:22,479 Speaker 1: right there for us, unbiased by interpretation and analysis. To 311 00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:27,200 Speaker 1: these photos, the Countess pinned paper to make herself look thinner, 312 00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:32,240 Speaker 1: almost like an early Instagram edit. How much has really 313 00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:37,600 Speaker 1: changed today? The reception of the later photos shows us 314 00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:41,199 Speaker 1: how the world saw a woman who got older, and 315 00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:46,360 Speaker 1: the Countess's actions prefigured how women might try to control 316 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:51,800 Speaker 1: how the world saw themselves pathetic and grotesque for a 317 00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:56,200 Speaker 1: woman to grow old and age, and even more grotesque 318 00:24:56,240 --> 00:25:01,320 Speaker 1: if an aging woman tries to look younger. Of course, 319 00:25:01,359 --> 00:25:06,200 Speaker 1: the Countess was indeed somewhat mentally unstable by the time 320 00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:10,600 Speaker 1: of these photo sessions. In eighteen ninety she titled one 321 00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:13,840 Speaker 1: photo in the series, I Don't give a damn for 322 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:18,320 Speaker 1: the Police Commissioner. In place vendome, she photographed her own 323 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:23,040 Speaker 1: swollen feet from the perspective of a corpse looking down 324 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:27,080 Speaker 1: in a casket. It would be comic and even smart 325 00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:30,880 Speaker 1: if she had any sense of irony about it. Art 326 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,960 Speaker 1: history does not suggest that she did. At the end 327 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:38,560 Speaker 1: of her life, she wanted an exhibit of the photographs 328 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:41,959 Speaker 1: of her to be called the most beautiful woman of 329 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:47,720 Speaker 1: the century. She died first on November twenty eighth, eighteen 330 00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:52,080 Speaker 1: ninety nine, at the age of sixty two. After her death, 331 00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:55,679 Speaker 1: she became the subject of plays and books, and in 332 00:25:55,720 --> 00:26:01,119 Speaker 1: the mid twentieth century several Hollywood films. She prefigured Cindy 333 00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:05,480 Speaker 1: Sherman and other photographers who made themselves the subject as 334 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:10,040 Speaker 1: photography continue to develop as an art form, although perhaps 335 00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:14,240 Speaker 1: they did it with more self awareness. In two thousand, 336 00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:19,840 Speaker 1: the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibited her photographs in twenty sixteen. 337 00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:24,159 Speaker 1: The novelist Alexander Chief used her as a character in 338 00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:28,119 Speaker 1: his novel The Queen of the Night, alongside a cover 339 00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:31,919 Speaker 1: image that is one of her photographs from a masked ball. 340 00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:36,199 Speaker 1: And her most artistic photo of all is one you 341 00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:40,080 Speaker 1: may have seen in the past sixty years. It's become 342 00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:44,479 Speaker 1: an icon of modern photography. It's a photo of a 343 00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:48,280 Speaker 1: glamorous woman holding an oval cutout in front of one 344 00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:54,760 Speaker 1: eye and peering through directly at the viewer. Covered and exposed. 345 00:26:55,920 --> 00:27:00,919 Speaker 1: And so the Countess did become an icon, a niche 346 00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:04,639 Speaker 1: one in the end. Yet upon her death it's not 347 00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:10,080 Speaker 1: clear that was what she wanted anymore. The Countess of Castilioni, 348 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:16,439 Speaker 1: Virginia Aldoni, famous narcissist, asked for no priest, no fanfare, 349 00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:20,240 Speaker 1: not even a mention of her death in the newspaper. 350 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:35,840 Speaker 1: Her wishes were ignored. People did talk. That's the story 351 00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:39,159 Speaker 1: of the Countess de Castiliani, but stick around after a 352 00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:42,439 Speaker 1: brief sponsor break to hear about one of her most 353 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:58,359 Speaker 1: obsessive posthumous admirers. After the Countess's death, newspapers and auction 354 00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:03,320 Speaker 1: houses cataloged her life and its objects. But one man 355 00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:08,960 Speaker 1: beat out all others in his intense, rather creepy, posthumous 356 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:14,119 Speaker 1: obsession with the Countess. The Comte Montexieu Fizonzac was a 357 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:18,320 Speaker 1: poet and a dandy who never met the Countess in life, 358 00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:22,639 Speaker 1: but upon her death he said he felt, quote time 359 00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:26,480 Speaker 1: is running out. I must act. At the hour appointed 360 00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:29,199 Speaker 1: for the closing of the casket. I went up the 361 00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:32,680 Speaker 1: tiny staircase at Vassin. In the middle of the bedroom. 362 00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:35,720 Speaker 1: On the floor was a coffin about to be closed. 363 00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:38,920 Speaker 1: There was for me a flash of light in the 364 00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:43,600 Speaker 1: brief glimpse of the pale, beautiful, noble, solemn face of death, 365 00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:49,160 Speaker 1: on the point of vanishing forever end quote. Monticxieu took 366 00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:55,120 Speaker 1: post death obsession to another level. He collected every artifact 367 00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:58,360 Speaker 1: of the Countesses that he could, including and this is 368 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:02,160 Speaker 1: just a partial list, the nightgown that she had asked 369 00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:06,600 Speaker 1: to be buried in, pieces of her actual coffin, plaster 370 00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:11,120 Speaker 1: casts of her feet and arms, the key to her apartment, 371 00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:15,000 Speaker 1: a shoe from her famous Queen of Hearts costume, and 372 00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:19,600 Speaker 1: four hundred and thirty four photographs. He wrote and published 373 00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:24,160 Speaker 1: a book about her La divine comtesse in nineteen thirteen, 374 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:28,200 Speaker 1: but the only person he was more obsessed with than 375 00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:33,360 Speaker 1: her was himself. He aimed to be the most photographed 376 00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:38,680 Speaker 1: person in the world. The Countess's narcissism inspired nothing so 377 00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:57,239 Speaker 1: much in him, but more narcissism. Noble Blood is a 378 00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:02,000 Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manke. 379 00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:06,480 Speaker 1: Noble Blood is created and hosted by me Dana Schwartz, 380 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:11,680 Speaker 1: with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, 381 00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:16,480 Speaker 1: Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is 382 00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:21,000 Speaker 1: edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and rima Il Kahali, 383 00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:26,760 Speaker 1: with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke, 384 00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:32,080 Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 385 00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:37,120 Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 386 00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:38,600 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.