“ANDThere were wonderful times when the queens of the good world rivaled Scipio with blows (in the sense of classics, ed.) and not emeralds; they luxuriously maintained an avant-garde magazine and not a yacht; they financed concerts while today they finance boutiques, hairdressing salons and trattoriasin the naive belief of making a lot of money from it” the journalist wrote in the 1930s Irene Brin, first Italian fashion editor. It was he who inspired his words in the first place Anna Laetitia Pecci Blunt: patron and collectorbearer of Italian good taste in Europe and overseas, but also organizer of amazing parties.
Mimì and Cecil Pecci Blunt in the Grotta di Pan of Villa Reale di Marlia.
A still little-known figure, to whom it was dedicated. in the Villa Reale of Marlia di Capannori in Lucca, the exhibition Mimi. Anna Laetitia Pecci Blunt: his soul in an archive. A life of culture, beauty and friendships with great artists and the international jet-set (defined as “my illustrious relatives”) reveals himself to Marlia in an intimate portrait of splendid rarity, thanks to documents she cataloged among notebooks, photographs and newspaper clippings.
Anna Laetitia was born in Rome in 1885 blessed (literally) by fortune: from a Spanish noble mother and count father, head of the Pontifical Palatine Guard and nephew of Pope Leo XIII who, in person, chose the first boarding school where Anna lived during her absences of her parents, even giving her her First Communion. To affirm her brilliant mind, even this wasn’t enough. Sportswoman, fearless traveler and great scholar, she was denied a degree: «They never let me go to university, but in Paris I met some guys who were Gide, Cocteau and Claudel, so my university was the Nouvelle Revue Française ».
Mimì Pecci Blunt with her camera in a photo by Ruggero Schiff.
It was the Crazy Years of the French capital and its artist cafés that shaped Mimì and her personality, from Sergej Diaghilev’s first Ballets Russes to jazz clubs that brought together names like Picasso and Cocteau, but also Dior, Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli. In that atmosphere Mimì meets Cecil Blumenthala very rich American banker of Jewish origins related to the French nobility, whom he married in 1919. As Mimì says, they combined their surnames and shortened their husband’s to Blunt, because it is too difficult to pronounce. A great love that lasted until Cecil’s death in 1965.
Mimì Pecci Blunt: extravagances and entertainment
In the beautiful Hôtel Pecci Blunt in Paris their five children were bornbut not only: if the Parisian elite welcomed in the salons soirée created to unite high society and artistic avant-gardes, the Pecci Blunts also organized large receptions. To better understand the significance of those moments, just think at the spectacular Bal des Matières in costume commissioned in 1929 by the famous Charles de Noailles and by his wife in their apartment, restored with “new materials” such as rubber, parchment, lacquer or snakeskin. That evening three rooms were left to the magazines to immortalize costumes created with unusual textures such as oilcloths, feathers, tapestries, paper and cardboard, wicker, leather.
The “Earthly Paradise” masquerade party in the kitchens of the Palazzina dell’Orologio.
In 1928 the Pecci Blunts had organized a splendid Bal de l’Imagination, where guests were provided with everything they needed to create their own character in a short time. Instead it was Le Bal Blanc of 1930 declared by Vogue as «the most spectacular ball of the Parisian season»: packed with guests in white dresses just like Mimì, resplendent in a Schiaparelli creation in front of the projections that were organized in his garden by Man Ray and his young assistant, Lee Miller, who became his great love that evening. Since 1926, Villa di Marlia had become the property of the Pecci Blunts, who spent their summers there.
Many moments immortalized by Mimì, a passionate photographer and part of the Union of Italian Photographic Art Societies. He documented his every journey forever, including stories and notes that lead us to dream of masquerade parties with whom she also used to entertain her Tuscan guests. Original themes interpreted with irony by friends like Cocteau and Serge Lifar, Alberto Moravia and Petrolini, Malaparte, Gala and Salvador Dathere, with whom Mimì maintained an eternal friendship, as a member of the Zodiac Circle: group of nobles and patrons committed to making Dalí’s talent known and purchasing his works.
Salvador Dalí and his wife Gala at the Royal Villa of Marlia.
Meanwhile the Pecci Blunts had conquered Rome. In their new Palazzo Ruspoli Malatesta Montanelli, Guttuso, great actors and even Jacqueline Kennedy alternated, but also concerts by well-known composers and conferences by intellectuals, hosting names such as Ungaretti, Moravia, Savinio, Margherita Sarfatti and Sibilla Aleramo. It was in 1935 that Mimì chose to organize her first art gallery, La Cometa. A case of rare patronage for the Capital, as the newspaper La Tribuna explained: «For the first time in Rome a gallery opens that intends to carry out an artistic program without taking into account any reason of contingency and paying attention to the facts and interests of Art».
But times were changing and so part of the Roman intelligentsia sided with an anti-Semitic campaign against the gallery’s activity, which was thus closed to avoid racial incidents. “I’m sorry that certain people who are so ignorant of how to serve their country aren’t asked to keep quiet,” Mimì herself wrote to the Minister of Culture. Without losing heart, having moved to New York because of the war, she had opened a branch of Comet, even gaining the patronage of President Roosevelt’s mother.
Mimì Pecci Blunt with Audrey Hepburn in 1965.
A multifaceted creativity
The inauguration brought an anthology of Italian names continuing to exhibit painters such as Carrà, De Pisis, Severini, De Chirico, Casorati or Morandi. Mimi’s will? «I hope I have managed to clarify so many things about Italian art that was completely ignored, and help those already well-known artists who were always attributed to the School of Paris». A splendid initiative that lasted just over a year.
When she returned to Italy in 1948, she immediately resumed her fervent cultural activity by promoting the birth of the Amici dei Musei association and even inaugurating the La Cometa Theatre, given to her by Cecil in 1958. Monica Vitti, Bice Valori, Jannacci, La Miss Snob by Franca Valeri and directors such as Strehler and Missiroli also performed here.. This crossroads of poets and writers, unfortunately, was stopped by a fire in 1969. It is no coincidence that in 1960, after decades of splendid patronage, Anna Letizia Pecci Blunt received the gold medal for Art and Culture from the Government Italian and, in 1964, the prestigious Légion d’Honneur from the French Government.
Mimì passed away in 1971remembered by the newspaper Il Tempo as « Lady of high virtues, intelligent patron and generous propagator of a culture that honored Italy and Europe».
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