Luisa Casati

Luisa Casati was an Italian aristocrat, patron and society figure who turned herself into a deliberately theatrical work of art. She commissioned portraits, staged extravagant performances and moved through pre-war and interwar European artistic circles before reckless spending left her impoverished.

Luisa Casati also held the offices or ranks of Marquess. Luisa Casati belonged to the House of Casati and operated within Italy; Kingdom of Italy. Luisa Casati was born in Milan and died in London.

Tracy Chevalier’s The Glassmaker reaches Luisa Casati during its long sweep through the afterlife of Murano glassmaking. Orsola Rosso’s beads pass into the hands of famous women across successive centuries, and Casati’s association with them places the extravagant twentieth-century patron inside the novel’s argument that a small object made by an otherwise marginalised craftswoman can travel far beyond its maker’s social world.