Portrait of Elsa Morante, 1968, Restored 2016
‘A magic transposition’
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Was Pincherle giving many voices to Morante in her 1968 portrait? Elsa Morante’s (1912-1985) novel, History, was hailed as the ‘novel of the century’ by Italian critics. Married to the writer Alberto Moravia, she was Pincherle’s sister-in-law. Choosing to represent Morante with a background of multiple women seemingly calling and leaning in to perhaps listen to her, Pincherle brings alive a quote from the writer when Morante wrote, ‘Novels are more autobiographical than any other thing you can say about yourself because with novels, it happens as in dreams: a magic transposition of our life.’ The portrait, hosted at Florence’s Gabinetto G.P. Vieusseux in Florence was restored by AWA in 2018.