Pasquarosa Bertoletti Marcelli (Anticoli Corrado 1896 - Camaiore 1973)

Pasquarosa Bertoletti Marcelli, known as Pasquarosa (Anticoli Corrado 1896 – Camaiore 1973) moved to Rome when she was very young and worked as an artist’s model, posing for Felice Carena and later for the painter Nino Bertoletti, whom she married in 1915.
Her precocious talent led to her work being accepted in 1915 for show at the third edition of the Secessione Romana exhibition, which immediately brought her into the spotlight. She also showed her work at the subsequent 1916 Secessione Romana exhibition and, together with Ferrazzi, Spadini, Socrate and Deiva De Angelis, in a group exhibition in 1918.
From the start, her decidedly non-academic inspiration ensured her place in the Italian art scene. She also received international recognition, including an exhibition in London at the Arlington Gallery, presented by Emilio Cecchi.
Her still life themes of feminine everyday objects are portrayed in a language in which the strong colours are somewhat muted by the discreet passage of light across the scene. An element of feminine intimacy, of self-questioning about the female psychological condition, charge Pasquarosa’s paintings with meaning, without explicit ostentation, and without recourse to direct iconography.