BY ADÈLE D'AFFRY, DUCHESS CASTIGLIONE-COLONNA, CALLED MARCELLO, THIRD QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

Influenced by her contemporaries, including Clésinger and Carpeaux, Adèle d'Affiny studied sculpture throughout Italy during the 1850s, ultimately becoming an apprentice to Heinrich Max Imhof, a well-established Swiss artist in Rome. In 1856, following the death of her husband, Carlo Castiglione-Colonna, whom she had wed the same year, the artist fully dedicated her efforts to sculpture and forthcoming exhibition opportunities. The artist regularly exhibited at the Paris Salons and, on occasion, at the Royal Academy in London. The height of her career came at the 1867 Paris Exposition Universelle, in which she entered a total of eight works, some previously exhibited in the Salons. Among the offerings was another marble bust of Bianca Capello, which is now housed at Château Fontainebleau.