Chronology
Marcello
(Adèle d´Affry, duchess Castiglione Colonna)
| 1836 | Adèle d´Affry, daughter of Louis d´Affry and Lucie de Maillardoz, is born in Fribourg on the 6th of July. She spends her youth in Givisiez near Fribourg and in the South of France. |
| 1853-1854 | She takes lessons at the home of the Swiss sculptor Heinrich Maximillian Imhof, in Rome where she is impressed by the works of Michelangelo. |
| 1856 | In Rome, she marries Don Carlo Colonna, Duke of Castiglione-Altibranti. Some months later, the young husband dies in Paris. After a period of mourning, she returns to making sculpture in Rome. She begins her sculptural works in plaster, in clay or in wax; a sculptor or founder would then transpose the work into marble or bronze. Many of the works exist in several versions. |
| 1858 | She leaves Italy to establish herself in Paris. Soon afterward her studio becomes an elegant meeting place for Parisiennes of high society. The artist herself is well acquainted and had friendships with Thiers, first president of the Third Republic and also with Rossini and Delacroix. She knows the Emperor Napoléon III personally. |
| 1861 | In Rome, at the Villa Medici, she makes the acquaintance of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, who will be, as a result, one of her closest friends. She returns to Paris. |
| 1863 | For the first time she participates in the Paris Salon (and will do so many times until 1877); She begins to use the pseudonym Marcello. |
| 1864 | After the death of Eugène Delacroix (in 1863), she buys three of his works. Carpeaux visits her at her home in Givisiez. |
| 1868 | She visits Genoa, Milan, Verona, Vienna, Florence and Rome. In the fall, she embarks on a voyage to Spain with her friends, the painters Henri Regnault and George Clairin. |
| 1869 | Stays in Rome, where she frequents the residents of the Villa Medici, whose director, Ernest Hébert, strikes up a friendship with her. Moreover, she meets Fortuny and Liszt. |
| 1873 | At the home of the Duke de Morny, she sees the album of Moroccan scenes by Delacroix; she makes a study after his Death of Sardinopolos. The Musée du Luxembourg acquires two of her works: Bianca Capello and the Abyssinian Chief. |
| 1876 | Travels to Italy. Because of her declining health, she travels from now on in mild climates, and she goes to Naples in 1878. |
| 1879 | Marcello dies on the 14th of July at Castellamare (of tuberculosis) near Naples. In accordance with her wishes, she is buried in Givisiez. |