Audioguide – The “Venetian Corridor”

But what was the connection between Margherita Cambiagio and Alice Psacaropulo? Who was Margherita, really? Margherita Cambiagio was the granddaughter of the Friulian noblewoman Lucia de Reya and the Sicilian baron Rosario Currò. The biographies of Currò portray an unforgettable figure — his gait slightly bent, his mustache à la Napoleon III, and above all, his boundless generosity. A generosity that earned him honors and memorials — like the marble bust one encounters on the staircase, sculpted in 1882 by Giovanni Depaul, one of the rare prominent figures in Triestine sculpture of the late nineteenth century; or portraits, such as the one we see here, in the so-called “Venetian Corridor,” commissioned around 1875 from one of the fathers of modern Triestine art: Eugenio Scomparini. Rosario Currò’s name appears even in the first Italian manuals for aspiring workers — collections of viri illustres who had distinguished themselves by their professional merit and were presented as examples for young apprentices to follow.

Rosario was born in 1813 to a family of modest merchants from the area of Catania. Suspected of political conspiracy, he was arrested by the Bourbons, forced to abandon his studies, and to devote himself to the struggling family business. In 1835, seeking to change his fate, he embarked for America with a shipment of citrus fruits — returning home with coffee, tobacco, and timber. But it was here, in Trieste, that his true fortune began. Two years after that voyage, in 1837, he settled in the city and founded his import-export company, “Fratelli Currò.” From then on, his life became the very emblem of the self-made man: a story of commerce and success, of great wealth accompanied by public offices and honors — both Italian and Austrian. There was, however, one final enterprise that crowned a lifetime of achievements: in 1876, the city of Catania appointed him to the delegation sent to Paris to oversee the exhumation and return to Italy of the remains of composer Vincenzo Bellini, buried at Père-Lachaise. It was the legendary Translation of Bellini’s Ashes — an event immortalized by Lorenzo Gatteri in a painting now housed at the Schmidl Theatre Museum in Trieste — one of those tales, poised between hagiography and national propaganda, that nourished the identity of a young nation.

From the union of Rosario Currò and Lucia de Reya were born four children: Antonietta, Adele (the woman portrayed in the oval frame), Rosario Junior (whom we shall meet later in the Living Room), and Vittoria. Adele Currò married her father’s business partner, Luigi Cambiagio, and their union brought forth Margherita — whom we may admire here in profile, portrayed with almost Renaissance grace by her youngest daughter, Alice Psacaropulo. In 1909, Margherita married a merchant of Greek origin, Giovanni Psacaropulo — known to all as “Ianni.” From their union were born three children: Giorgio, Adelina, and Alessandro — architect and sculptor, a pupil of Attilio Selva in Rome — who would later play a decisive role in introducing the young Alice to the artistic circles of Venice.

The Art Collection

1. The martyrdom of Saint Justus – Alice Psacaropulo

Long forgotten in the villa’s attic, this painting was restored in 2021 for the centenary exhibition dedicated to Alice Psacaropulo. The jute canvas (180 x 80 centimeters) depicts the martyrdom of the city’s patron saint — drowned by Roman soldiers in the Gulf of Trieste on November 2nd, 303 AD. Alice chose this subject for a competition organized to honor Bishop Santìn and to celebrate Trieste’s Italian identity. The “painful compositional journey” of the work — reconstructed through charcoal sketches and preparatory studies — was analyzed by Claudia Crosèra (1936–1946: The Beginnings, in Alice Psacaropulo. Writings for the Centenary, ed. M. Casaccia, Rome, Palombi, 2023, pages. 19–37).

The Art Collection

2. Genesis of a collection: Currò by Scomparini

Commissioned around 1875 from one of the fathers of modern Triestine art — Eugenio Scomparini (Trieste, 1845–1913) — the portrait of Baron Rosario Currò marks the very beginning of this collection. In fact, it is a detail from a larger painting depicting the great philanthropist, once paired with a “fortunate” portrait of his wife, the Friulian noblewoman Lucia de Reya. This bourgeois tradition of commissioning portraits was continued by their only son, Rosario Junior, whose artistic legacy is largely preserved in the Revoltella Museum in Trieste — with the exception of his own portrait, now displayed in the living room. That portrait, painted by another eminent local artist, Carlo Wostry (Trieste, 1865–1943), echoes the same monumental pathos found in his celebrated Martyrdom of Saint Justus in Trieste’s cathedral.

The Art Collection

3. “Elected Ladies”: women in the collection

On the wall dedicated to family portraits and photographs, the face of a young woman appears — in rapture, perhaps a Magdalene, perhaps a woman of everyday grace. The artist is Georgios Iakovidis (Lesbos, 1853 – Athens, 1932), Greek painter and medalist trained at the Munich Academy, founder and first director of the National Gallery of Athens. The circumstances of this painting’s arrival in the collection remain uncertain — perhaps a wedding gift to Margherita and “Ianni” Psacaropulo from one of their many Greek guests; or perhaps it portrays a yet unidentified relative of the Currò–Psacaropulo lineage. Iakovidis also portrayed Trieste’s nobility during his stay — his splendid Baroness Economo is now kept at the Castle of Muggia. Another artist of Greek descent represented here is painter and printmaker Elettra Metallinò (Trieste, 1932–2025). To the right appears Mirella Schott Sbisà (Trieste, 1921–2015), one of Alice Psacaropulo’s dearest friends, also the creator of the two ceramic napkin rings in the living room, made to mark the first ten years of the Trieste section of Soroptimist International — a section founded by the two friends among others. Alice and Mirella were immortalized together in Carlo Sbisà’s luminous Solfeggio Lesson (1943).

Audioguide – The “Venetian Corridor”

Audioguide – The “Venetian Corridor”

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