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Do art dealers really develop what Maurice Rheims, the prominent French art historian and author of the 1961 memoir The Strange Life of Objects, defined as an ‘insane passion’ for a part of their collection? That is to say, become so profoundly obsessed with one object that they will refuse to separate themselves from it no matter how tempting the offer? In pursuit of an answer, off we go to Rome’s prestigious Piazza di Spagna to meet Alessandra Di Castro, an internationally revered antique dealer and a descendant of the city’s most prominent antiquaire dynasties, in her showroom.
She greets us at the entrance, a spacious room with vaulted ceilings lit up by paintings, marble carvings, furnishings and other artefacts that hark back to a time when the creation of beauty was entrusted to the most accomplished talents of every generation. ‘For centuries, this city was the world capital of art and craftsmanship,’ says Alessandra, pointing to a collection of extraordinarily realistic early 19th-century micro-mosaics. ‘Collectors, connoisseurs and dealers from northern Europe and the United States would flock to Rome to acquire antiques. Which is why this area was teeming with artists, restorers, and craftspeople. It still is,’ she adds with a knowing smile, ‘if you know where to find them.’
With her elegant manner, finely chiselled features and dramatic mane of blonde curls, Alessandra embodies a timeless allure that feels perfectly suited to her surroundings. And little wonder: she belongs to an ancient Jewish lineage, one that goes all the way back to the second century BC when Jews from the Holy Land first settled in the heart of the Roman Republic. After showing me around, we sit down at her desk, a 1949 piece that architect René Herbst, one of the pioneers of the machine aesthetic in France, designed for his own use. It defies expectations. Though Alessandra’s areas of expertise ranges from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and the Baroque periods through to the 18th-century respectively, she does make exceptions for 20th-century masterpieces of art or design.
So, back to the question at hand: has she ever developed an insane passion for something – an object she could never bring herself to sell? Alessandra nods quietly and points her finger towards a brooch pinned on the left lapel of her jacket, just below the neckline. It is an oval cameo, a garnet stone with an exquisitely carved portrait of Livia Drusilla, the wife of Augustus and empress of Rome from 27 BC to AD 14. ‘The singular quality of this carving could only be matched by the talent of Joel Arthur Rosenthal,’ she says. The celebrated Paris-based jewellery designer, generally known as JAR, set the cameo for her in a frame of large purple stones – ‘a noble hue,’ says Alessandra: ‘the colour of Emperors’ – encircled by a finer one of tiny diamonds. ‘What enchanted me about this piece was the quality of the stone; Joel’s frame makes it even more radiant.’
Alessandra’s passion for antiques began in early childhood. It’s a love affair that has shaped the destiny of her family for generations, ever since her forebear Leone opened his first antiques shop near the Vatican some years after Rome became the capital of a united Italy in 1870. Alberto, Alessandra’s grandfather – who survived the Holocaust by hiding in a Roman cloister with his family under the protection of a monsignor – upped the game in the 1950s when he inaugurated his showroom on the fashionable Via del Babuino, a stone’s throw from Piazza di Spagna. But it was her father, Franco, who mentored her and her brother Alberto and inducted them into the precious world of antiques. ‘We were very young,’ she recalls of the senior Di Castro, whose own shop is just next door, ‘when he began teaching us about the various materials: wood, coral, mother of pearl, marble, mosaics….’ The spell firmly upon her, Alessandra went on to graduate in art history from Rome’s Sapienza University and study further at the V&A and at the Ecole du Louvre – but, she says, ‘this is a job one learns on the field, working side by side with the best restorers.’
In 2009, Alessandra shocked the patriarchal world of Roman dealers by stepping out on her own. She established her showroom, Alessandra Di Castro Antiques, just in time for her 40th birthday and launched it with an exhibition of rare cameos and carved gems. It was a pioneering gesture. At that time cameos were still considered a ‘minor’ art form, something in between jewellery and sculpture. ‘The truth is that these stone intaglios belong to an ancient and glorious tradition: they have been collected since antiquity all the way through to the Renaissance courts and beyond.’ Over the years, the dealer has bought and sold many such pieces, studying the provenance of each one and becoming a world expert on the subject. This ‘insane passion’ has led her to create a quite remarkable collection. ‘Most of the pieces I can probably bear to part with, but this one,’ she concludes, touching her brooch gently, ‘will stay with me forever.’
For more information about Alessandra Di Castro Antiques, visit alessandradicastro.com
