02 works, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, meet Marta Marzotto, with Footnotes. #83

Renato Guttuso, (1912 - 1987)

Marta Marzotto

Mixed technique on cardboard, c. 1970

51x37

Private collection

Marta Marzotto , born Marta Vacondio ( Albinea , 24 February 1931 - Milan , 29 July 2016 ), was a model , stylist and Italian socialite, and also an actress. Her mother was a signalwoman on a toll road and worked in the textile industry. Her father was a railway worker. As a girl Marta worked in the region’s rice fields. Determined to seek a better future, she learned the seamstress’s craft in the city of Pavia, south of Milan, and became a model.

It was beside a catwalk in Venice that she met Count Marzotto. They married in 1954 and had five children.

From the late sixties she was the dominant female figure in the painting and private life of Renato Guttuso. The latter, after having met her in the living room of the Marchi in Milan , represented her in many works, including the above work. The relationship between the two suddenly ceased after about twenty years. In 1976 he met Lucio Magri : she also had an important relationship with him, which lasted ten years

Renato Guttuso, (1912 - 1987)

Marta, c. 1987

27-colour materic serigraph on canvas

Private collection

This Painting was commissioned by Marta Marzotto, ‘Guttuso’s lover’, in 150 copies to give to friends. The signature HC demonstrate that these were not intended for sale. The print run was made in 1987, the signature is on the plate; title: ‘Marta’. 

She was also an actress, known for Summer Night with Greek Profile, Almond Eyes and Scent of Basil (1986), Il Quizzone (1994) and Quelli che... il calcio (1993).

Marta Marzotto, a fashion and jewelry designer, former model, countess and hostess to the famous, died on July 29, 2016 in Milan, at 85. More on Marta Marzotto

Renato Guttuso (26 December 1912 – 18 January 1987) was an Italian painter. His best-known works include Flight from Etna (1938–39), Crucifixion (1941) and La Vucciria (1974). Guttuso also designed for the theatre and did illustrations for books. Those for Elizabeth David’s Italian Food (1954), introduced him to many in the English-speaking world. A fierce anti-Fascist, "he developed out of Expressionism and the harsh light of his native land to paint landscapes and social commentary."

He was born in Bagheria, near Palermo in Sicily, but from 1937 lived and worked largely in Rome. In his youth he joined the Gruppo universitario fascista, but later he became an anti-fascist and atheist. He joined the banned Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1940 and left Rome to become an active participant in the partisan struggle from 1943. He was also an opponent to the Mafia. In 1972 Guttuso was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. In 1976 he was elected to the Italian Senate as a PCI representative for the Sicilian constituency of Sciacca.

Guttuso became a member of an artistic movement named "Corrente". The movement stood for free and open attitudes, in opposition to the official culture, and chose a strong anti-fascist position in thematic choices through the years of the Spanish Civil War.

Mimise Dotti-Guttuso died on 6 October 1986. Guttuso was soon to follow his wife. He died in Rome of lung cancer at the age of 75 on 18 January 1987. On his deathbed, he allegedly embraced again the Christian faith with which he had been critical. However, there are doubts as to what really happened—in his last months, when he was bedridden, a circle of politicians and priests excluded his oldest friends from his villa. He donated many of his works to his hometown Bagheria, which are now housed in the museum of the Villa Cattolica. More on Renato Guttuso

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