| Admin/Biog History | Luisa Vertova (30 December 192028 June 2021) was an Italian art historian. Her research mostly focused on Renaissance Italian painters such as Piero della Francesca, Mantegna, Paolo Veronese, Titian, Botticelli and Caravaggio. For more than a decade following the Second World War, Vertova worked as Bernard Berensons assistant helping to reorganize his photo archive at I Tatti, revising his famous Lists, and translating into Italian his most important work, Drawings of the Florentine Painters.
Vertova met Nicolson in October 1948 while they were both guests of Berenson at I Tatti. They began corresponding in 1949 and by 1953 Nicolson wrote that he very much wanted to marry her. After a courtship conducted almost exclusively via correspondence, they were married on 8 August 1955 in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. Vertova moved from Italy to live with Nicolson in England: they took a house together at 11 Thurloe Street. There was conflict between Vertova and her family because of gossip that Nicolson was homosexual, but he had already told her this in a letter (not included in the Nicolson Archive, but referred to as the 'sealed letter'). They exchanged many letters regarding the subject of physcial intimacy prior to their marriage.
In 1956, they had a daughter, Vanessa Pepita Giovanna Nicolson. However, Vertova felt isolated and trapped in England after leaving her career and family in Italy. Nicolson and Vertova were divorced in 1962.
Vertova continued to enjoy a prolific and influential career as an art historian specializing in Italian Renaissance and Baroque. She was employed for many years by Christie's as a consultant for Italian artwork. She died in Florence in 2021. |
| Description | The letters in this sub-series were written by Nicolson in a personal capacity. The majority were exchanged between 1954 and 1955 during Nicolson and Vertova's courtship and prior to their marriage. Following the marriage, they corresponded only when separated by travel (eg. when Vertova was visiting family in Italy).
The letters primarily concern the relationship between Nicolson and Vertova: their initial regard for one another & the decision to become correspondents; Nicolson's proposal of marriage; extensive discussion about how their marriage would work including the role of physcial initmacy; male and female roles in relationships; children and religion, alongside practical matters such as where they would live & financial arrangements. The letters exchanged after marriage concern practical matters;domestic matters; arrangements for travel and their daughter, Vanessa. They also concern mutual friends.
The letters also include references to art historical matters including their respective research interests; Nicolson's work for the Burlington and Vertova's work at I Tatti alongside fellow art historians. They also concern, in particular, Nicolson's work in relation to his Terbrugghen publication and his extensive travels to view works by the artist. Letters also reference Nicolson's collection of images/photographs/postcards and his work arranging these into a reference resource.
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