By Giulia
“Women, it is time for your awakening! Do not fear the hypocrisy masked as morality. Do not fear the truth. Do not fear the words.”
“The woman of Fiume is nothing but the mother of the modern woman. Let us destroy all this past. Freedom. Shamelessness. Courage.”
Who is Fiammadoro
The speaker is Fiammadoro: never was a name more fitting for a woman who lived in her own way in Italy between the two world wars. Her family is an ancient aristocratic family that settled in Lombardy from Switzerland in the mid-18th century: Margot was born Keller von Kellerer in 1892. The photo albums we found in the attic of her bridal home give us an idea of the world Margot lived in as a child and teenager: family gatherings in grand villas with gardens, car trips around the lakes, hikes in the high mountains on glaciers, holidays on the Romagna Riviera.
There are also tableaux vivants and costume performances. From that era (but also from later years, as a testament to a passion that continues over time), we have the illustrated books of fairy tales and adaptations of Shakespeare that filled the shelves of the little libraries of aristocratic children: precious volumes with beautiful illustrations by Rackham, Dulac, and Nielsen, in both Italian and English, to make Margot dream and build her taste.
I will break, I will not bend.
We see her as a teenager in many photographs: perhaps because we know her story, but already in her gaze it is clear that this young girl is a “tough one”. Moreover, on one of the illustrated books, in beautiful handwriting, is written the motto of this blossoming young lady: “Frangar non flectar”, “I will break, I will not bend”; not bad for a young lady from a good family. Perhaps there is also a streak of transgression flowing in her Keller von Kellerer blood. There is a beautiful photo, probably taken around 1916: Margot is in a boat with her fiancé, Pietro Besozzi from Castelbesozzo, and her cousin, the incredible Guido Keller, one of the most singular figures of the early post-war period, who will accompany Margot on her most thrilling adventure.
The photos with the fiancé bring us closer to the turning point in the life of a woman of the time: marriage, which took place in 1917, with her husband Pietro always in uniform and sending endless photographs from the front. Of Margot, two studio photographs, very conventional, dated 1918: it seems that her life had settled into the role of wife and future mother. But instead…
A Legionnaire in Fiume
Her husband Pietro, we do not know under what circumstances or why, is connected to Gabriele D’Annunzio: among the books in their house, we found a first edition of *La figlia di Iorio* with a splendid Ex Libris Gabrielis Nuncii Porphyrogenitis and Pietro’s ownership signature. The fact is that Pietro leaves with the poet to Fiume, to live the intense 16 months of the Carnaro expedition. And in Fiume, D’Annunzio’s closest collaborator, there is her cousin Guido Keller, an aviator on the Italian front in Francesco Baracca’s squadron, co-founder in Fiume with Comisso of the Yoga association (Union of free spirits aiming at perfection), a naturist, vegetarian, and daring participant in almost insane feats (legendary his flight from Fiume to Rome to drop a chamber pot on Montecitorio as a sign of contempt).
And Margot? Could she have stayed at home? She also leaves, becomes a Legionnaire, and in the incredible atmosphere of this besieged city in wartime, she lives as a free woman, an early feminist: “I am young. I smoke many cigarettes. I don’t care about the crusade against luxury, and I wear silk undergarments and thread stockings. Which I pay for myself… I love everything that is beautiful. I love, therefore, first of all love. Then myself. Then the Fatherland.”
The Relationship with D’Annunzio
And then D’Annunzio: this begins a relationship with this man, nearly 30 years older than her, a relationship that lasted until the poet’s death in 1938, documented by a correspondence recently published by the Salerno publishing house. He is the Mage, and she becomes Fiammadoro, for the poet’s magical ability to rename the women he loved, giving us a truer portrait of them. In the album, there are two signed photos of D’Annunzio in uniform. And Pietro? As always, we cannot know what this singular couple lived; however, a playful photo from the engagement period strikes me: Margot threatens a smiling Pietro with a whip, surely not an image of a fragile and submissive woman…
In recent years, Margot’s motto has also changed: now it is “Magis magisque,” “More and more”. This motto crowns a beautiful Ex libris, unfortunately unsigned, of which we preserve the preparatory drawing and the original plate: two naked men crouched down burning incense in a brazier; above the swirling smoke, a rock on top of which a beautiful naked woman with long loose hair raises her arms to the sky.
Woman of Culture and Artist
Margot was also a woman of culture: likely linked to her time in Fiume, she frequented Futurist writers and artists. Among her books, there is a signed copy of “Pittura dell’avvenire” by Arnaldo Ginna, but also “Pittura scultura futuriste” by Boccioni and “L’Arte dei rumori” by Russolo. Inescapable are the two books dedicated to her beloved cousin, who died in a car accident in 1929: “Incontro con Guido Keller” by Krimer, a pseudonym of Cristoforo Mercati, and “Guido Keller nel pensiero, nelle gesta” by Sandro Pozzi, both of whom were legionaries in Fiume. A lovely dedication also comes from the painter Anselmo Bucci in his autobiographical book “Il pittore volante”: “To Margot Besozzi Keller de Keller, a superb painter who modestly flew over the enemy. BUCCI March 1930”; we also have a photographic reproduction of Bucci’s beautiful portrait of an elegantly dressed Margot from 1929.
The friendship between Margot and Sibilla Aleramo lasted many years, another woman who defied norms and is not surprising to find close to our Fiammadoro: in her book “Andando e stando,” we find an autographed dedication: “To Fiammadoro, burning and bright like her name remembered in these pages, all my affection, Sibilla Rome, January 1943”. And on page 282, we find the memory mentioned in the dedication: one evening, Margot invites Sibilla to La Scala for a concert conducted by Strauss, and here Sibilla has her last encounter with D’Annunzio, struck by how fragile and aged he had become.
The years also pass for Margot: we know that in her later years, she dedicated herself to painting and invented herself as an interior designer; she died at 87 in 1979.
But thinking of her, I am reminded of the verses from a famous song by Guccini, La locomotiva: “But we like to think of her still behind the engine, as she drives the steam engine forward”, because, after all, “heroes are all young and beautiful”. And so I keep in my heart the beautiful Fiammadoro, free, audacious, courageous.
The Exhibition
From the house of Countess Margot Besozzi of Castelbesozzo, a collection of photos and books that tell the story of a woman who loved culture, courageous and audacious.
The collection will be visible at the Cambiago store, Via Castellazzo 8, from February 4 to 9.
You can also consult and purchase the collection from our website by clicking this link.
Store hours at Cambiago:
- Tuesday and Thursday: from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM
- Saturday and Sunday: from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM
All volumes are discounted by 5%.
