Rome (Roma)

Research Status: Comprehensive Last Updated: 2026-05-24 Diary Coverage: Major extended stay January-April 1876 (carnets 051-057); references throughout 1875-1884 Diary References: ~329 across ~80 entries, concentrated in carnets 051-057

Overview

Rome, the Eternal City and capital of the Kingdom of Italy since 1871, was a transformative destination in Marie Bashkirtseff's life. Her extended stay from January 3 to April 12, 1876 (carnets 051-057, approximately 100 days) marks a decisive period in her development: artistic awakening through direct contact with the greatest Western art, a vivid experience of Roman Carnival, the Antonelli romance, and a deepening of her ambitions. The city of the Caesars and the Popes "acted upon her like strong wine," as her biographer Mathilde Blind wrote.

Marie herself captured the arc of her Roman transformation in a marginal note added to her first day's entry (051.0293, Jan 4, 1876): > En arrivant a Rome je n'avais aucun sentiment artistique, c'est Rome qui m'a ouvert l'esprit, aussi l'ai-je adoree depuis.

Historical Context (1870s)

Rome as New Capital

Rome had only recently become the capital of unified Italy, a transformation that was still raw when Marie arrived:

- September 20, 1870: Italian troops entered Rome through a breach near the Porta Pia after the withdrawal of French garrison troops during the Franco-Prussian War
- July 1, 1871: Rome officially became the capital, replacing Florence; the royal court moved to the Quirinal Palace
- Urban transformation: The new government embarked on massive construction projects to make Rome a worthy capital, which Marie found an "affreux melange de belles antiquites et de nouvelles vilenies" (051.0300, Jan 5)
- The Roman Question: Pope Pius IX declared himself a "prisoner of the Vatican" and refused to recognize the Italian state; this standoff would not be resolved until the Lateran Treaty of 1929

The "Black" and "White" Aristocracy

Rome in the 1870s had a uniquely divided social world, a consequence of the capture of Rome:

- The "Black nobility" (nobiltà nera): Aristocratic families loyal to the Pope who refused to recognize the new Italian state. They kept their palace doors closed in mourning and were named for the black court dress worn at papal ceremonies. Major families included the Colonna, parts of the Borghese, and others who maintained a parallel social world oriented toward the Vatican.
- The "White" aristocracy: Families who accommodated the House of Savoy monarchy and participated in the new Italian state. The Torlonia family, whom Marie pursued obsessively, straddled both worlds.
- The diplomatic corps: Embassies and foreign representatives navigating the dual power structure
- The foreign colonies: British, American, Russian, and German communities, centered around the Piazza di Spagna where Marie's hotel was located

Marie grasped this political complexity with remarkable sophistication. On her departure day (057.0064, Apr 12, 1876), she wrote a political essay analyzing the decline of the Roman aristocracy under Italian unification: > Rome sans le Pape était tout à fait une ville à part et souveraine du monde dans son genre. Alors, chaque prince romain était comme un petit roi, il avait sa cour et ses clients comme dans l'Antiquité. C'est à ce régime que tient la grandeur des familles. Certes dans deux générations il n'y aura plus ni grandeur, ni richesse, car Rome est soumise aux lois royales et Rome deviendra comme Naples, Milan et les autres villes de l'Italie.

The French Academy and the International Art Colony

The French Academy in Rome, housed at the Villa Medici since 1803, made Rome a pilgrimage destination for artists. Winners of the Prix de Rome spent years studying and copying masterpieces of antiquity and the Renaissance. Notable 19th-century winners included Ingres, Berlioz, Bizet, and Debussy. Marie, who would later study at the Academie Julian in Paris, did not attend the Villa Medici but was deeply affected by Rome's artistic legacy. In 1878, an engraving of Ingres on the terrace of the Trinita dei Monti, with St. Peter's cupola on the horizon, "m'a fait litteralement dresser les cheveux sur la tete" (083, Dec 4, 1878).

Rome also attracted a broad international community of artists, including Russian painters like Mikhail Botkine, who became Marie's first contact in Rome's artistic circle and introduced her to teachers (051.0281, Jan 4). The Polish-Ukrainian painter Pavel Katorbinsky gave Marie painting lessons during her stay, and she painted ciociara (peasant women from the Ciociaria region south of Rome) as models (054.0554, Feb 14).

Marie's Experience in Rome (1876)

Arrival and First Impressions (January 1876)

Marie departed Nice on January 2, 1876, arriving by train after 24 hours of travel on January 3 (051.0243). Her first impression was of desolation:

> Enfin vers trois heures, lundi 3 janvier, par cette triste plaine qu'on nomme la campagne de Rome ont commence a paraitre des ruines, des colonnes, des aqueducs, et nous sommes entres dans la gare de Rome. Je ne sais rien, je n'entends rien, je suis toute decollee, apres mes vingt-quatre heures sans sommeil.

The family stayed at the Hotel de Londres on the Place d'Espagne (Piazza di Spagna), the center of foreign colony life. Later they moved to the Hotel de la Ville on Via del Babuino. Marie was initially appalled by Rome (051.0300, Jan 5): > Est-ce possible que ce soit Rome ! Quel affreux melange de belles antiquites et de nouvelles vilenies !

And yet: "Rome ne me fait pas l'effet de Rome. Est-ce bien Rome?" (051.0310, Jan 4). Her disorientation gradually gave way to deep attachment.

Artistic Encounters

Marie's encounter with Rome's art was characteristically independent and bold. She visited churches, palaces, museums, and galleries with passionate intensity and irreverent honesty:

The Vatican and Sistine Chapel (053.0341-0346, Feb 3): Marie rushed through the Raphael Rooms and Loggia, finding them disappointing: "les loges de Raphael qui m'ont desappointee." At the Sistine Chapel: "nous faisons tant de tapage que le custode vient crier silenzio!" She looked through a keyhole and recoiled when an eye appeared on the other side. On Michelangelo's Last Judgment: "tous ses hommes etaient de la meme couleur, ce qui n'est pas naturel." On Raphael: "ce coquin de Raphael peignait fort peu lui-meme. Il dessinait, mais ce n'est pas assez."

The Colosseum (051.0286, Jan 4; 053.0313, Feb 8): Marie saw the Colosseum on her first day and returned repeatedly: "Je vois chaque jour le Colisee et je n'en ai jamais assez" (052.0389, Jan 21). On a detailed visit she climbed to the top: "J'etouffais, mais pas de fatigue, mais d'admiration pour cette grandeur dechue." She quoted Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage on the Colosseum (051.0317, Jan 5).

St. Peter's Basilica (051.0307, Jan 5; 053.0310, Jan 30): Marie was overwhelmed by St. Peter's facade on first sight: "C'est superbe, elle m'a ravi le coeur, surtout la colonnade gauche, parce qu'aucune maison ne la depasse et ses colonnes avec le ciel pour fond, produisent l'effet le plus saisissant. On se croirait dans la vieille Grece." Dina's paradox captured the scale: "Saint-Pierre c'est si grand que ca parait petit."

The Doria Palace Gallery (053.0314, Feb 4): Marie was enchanted by the Titian paintings: "un portrait de Diego Velasquez est admirable de naturel. Une Madeleine du Titien, mon peintre favori."

Ancient ruins (052.0341, Jan 12): She explored obsessively: "le temple de Vesta, il battistero di Costantino avec ces merveilleuses mosaiques du 5eme siecle, ces colonnes de porphyre prises au palais des Cesars; puis la fontaine Paulien... le Colisee encore, puis un tas de ruines differentes." After these visits: "si nous regardons comme une magnificence un vil morceau de maison, que dirions-nous donc si on nous montrait Rome au temps de sa grandeur!"

The Papal Audience (January 22, 1876)

Marie had an audience with Pope Pius IX at the Vatican (052.0356-0364). She passed through magnificent halls: "Un domestique tout habille de damas rouge nous conduit dans une longue galerie adorablement peinte avec des medaillons en bronze incrustes dans les murs, et des camees." The Pope asked if they were from Petersburg; Marie's mother replied, "Non Saint-Pere, de la Petite Russie." Marie noted with characteristic candor: "en realite il est beaucoup plus vieux, tant que sa levre inferieure pend comme chez un vieux chien."

The Roman Carnival (February 1876)

The Roman Carnival was one of Europe's most famous festivals, though by the 1870s it was in decline. The traditional horse race of the barberi (riderless Barbary horses) down the Via del Corso had been partially curtailed after King Victor Emmanuel II banned certain events in 1874 following fatal accidents. Marie's Carnival spanned February 19-29, 1876 (carnet 054), and is one of the diary's most vivid sequences.

First day of Carnival (054.0297, Feb 19): Marie watched from a balcony on the Corso: "C'est le premier jour du carnaval. Le Corso est peu anime. Nous recevons une quantite de bouquets. J'ai vu pour la premiere fois cette fameuse course des Barberi. C'est tres beau et original."

The masked ball at the Capitoline (054.0204-0283, Feb 18): Marie attended her first masked ball at the Campidoglio, dressed in black silk with a black velvet mask and silver lace. She spoke with Antonelli while masked, and he claimed to be "in love with a mask." This entry is one of the diary's great set pieces of carnival comedy.

Confetti battle in dominos (054.0369, Feb 22): Marie, Dina, and Lola rode in an open carriage in white dominos with indigo stripes, bombarding passersby: "Le Corso est anime, c'est le dernier jour des confettis, protegees par nos masques nous battons, nous envoyons des grimaces, des baisers, des gestes desesperes. Aux tournants des rues nous ecrasons les malheureux pretres par une grele de confettis."

Mardi Gras (054.0698, Feb 29): "Je ne prends pas sur moi de remonter la furieuse gaieté d'un Mardi gras à Rome. Tant c'était amusant que je n'ai pas remarqué l'absence d'Antonelli."

The Carnival included the traditional moccoli (candles) and the decorated balconies Marie described: "des balcons et des fenetres garnis d'etoffes blanches, rouges, bleues, jaunes, roses et le peuple, et peu de masques, et les courses des barberi" (054.0443, Feb 21).

The Antonelli Romance

Rome was the setting for one of Marie's most intense romantic episodes. Count Pietro Antonelli, nephew of Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli (1806-1876, the powerful Secretary of State to Pope Pius IX, often called the "Italian Richelieu"), first caught Marie's attention on February 15, 1876. The romance dominated carnets 054-057:

- First sighting (054.0459, Feb 15): "Il n'y a personne de mieux que lui a Rome." Rossi offers to present him.
- The Corso encounters (054.0437, Feb 17): "C'est sur le Corso que je vois enfin Antonelli, gravement appuye sur le bras de quelqu'un, et regardant droit devant lui comme jadis Audiffret."
- The bouquet scene (054.0560, Feb 23): Antonelli physically wrested a thrown bouquet from a peasant's hands with aristocratic sang-froid, electrifying Marie: "c'etait si beau, que l'homme avait l'air presque sublime."
- Mock Latin (054.0625, Feb 27): "Marie Bachkirtseva creavit in mentem suam Petrus Antonellius. J'espere que c'est du latin!"

- The horseback ride in the Campagna (055.0186-0204, Mar 7): Antonelli declared his love by the Tiber: "Je vous aime." Marie dismissed him, but his admission "En vous voyant je suis tout de suite tombe amoureux de vous et puis cela a passe" haunted her.
- Pietro's disappearance (056, Mar 31-Apr 9): Pietro retreated to the convent of San Giovanni e Paolo, under family pressure. Marie waited in agony: "Non, ecoutez! Pietro, ou que tu sois... mon cher ami, mon meilleur souvenir de Rome" (056, Apr 7).
- Departure without resolution (057.0073, Apr 12): "Combien de fois ai-je promis de ne rien faire pour personne! Et je restais a Rome pour Pietro."

The Campagna

The Roman Campagna, the wild countryside around Rome, provided the setting for the horseback riding scenes that are among the diary's most thrilling passages. Marie rode out through the Porta del Popolo with Antonelli, Plowden, and Loebecke (055.0186, Mar 7):

> Une fois en campagne nous prenons le galop, sautons des fosses et allons comme le vent. C'est adorable.

The landscape moved her to song: "L'air de la campagne, le soleil et les moutons avec leurs sales bergers m'animent et je me mets a chanter le requiem de Verdi" (055.0203). The Campagna was also famous for its malaria risk; Marie's mother constantly invoked disease scares to force departure (056, Apr 4).

Social Frustrations

Despite Rome's grandeur, the Bashkirtseff family's social position was precarious. The Russian ambassador distanced himself because of the family's lawsuit scandal, making it nearly impossible to enter Roman society (054.0332, Feb 12):

> On nous a dit une chose affreuse. Il parait qu'a notre arrivee on s'est informe aupres de l'ambassade de Russie et que la l'on a dit des choses abominables sur notre compte.

Marie's frustration was palpable (053.0371, Jan 27): "Cette quantite de voitures armoriees m'attriste, nous ne sommes nulle part, nous ne connaissons personne!" And (055.0322, Mar 11): "Il n'y a rien de plus amusant que Rome. A present je connais tout le monde de vue" -- yet only de vue (by sight), never as an insider.

Key Sites

Art and Architecture

- Vatican Museums: Sistine Chapel, Raphael Rooms, classical sculpture, painting gallery
- St. Peter's Basilica: Michelangelo's dome and Pieta; the colonnade that reminded Marie of ancient Greece
- Borghese Gallery: Major painting and sculpture collection
- Capitoline Museums: Ancient Roman art; the Capitoline Venus that Marie visited (053.0308, Jan 27)
- Palazzo Doria Pamphilj: Gallery with Titian, Velazquez, Van Dyck
- Palazzo Colonna: One of Rome's grandest aristocratic palaces
- Pantheon: The ancient temple, then a Christian church

Ancient Rome

- The Forum: Center of ancient Roman life; Marie visited on her first day
- The Colosseum: Visited repeatedly; the diary's most quoted Roman site
- The Palatine Hill: Imperial palaces; Marie explored palaces of Caligula, Nero, and Vespasian (053.0315, Feb 8)
- The Appian Way: Ancient road; site of the tomb of Caecilia Metella where Antonelli lured Marie (054.0440, Feb 21)
- Baths of Caracalla: Marie joked she might have to live there for lack of affordable apartments (051.0298, Jan 5)

Social Venues

- The Pincio: Fashionable promenade gardens above the Piazza del Popolo; Rome's equivalent of Nice's Promenade des Anglais for social display. Music played in the evenings.
- The Corso (Via del Corso): Main street for the Carnival procession and daily promenades; Marie rented a balcony for Carnival
- Caffe Greco: Historic cafe frequented by artists and writers
- Villa Borghese: Gardens for walking and riding
- Spillmann's: Fashionable restaurant on the Corso, "le London House de Rome" (054.0297, Feb 19)
- The Caccia-Club (Hunt Club): Exclusive gentleman's club (055.0322, Mar 11)
- Piazza di Spagna: Center of foreign colony; location of Marie's hotel

Churches

- Santa Maria Maggiore: One of Rome's four great basilicas
- San Giovanni in Laterano: The Pope's cathedral
- Santa Croce in Gerusalemme: Marie visited on March 20, the only day women were admitted to the Chapel of St. Helena (055.0361)
- San Pietro in Vincoli: Where the chains of St. Peter were kept (053.0315, Feb 8)
- Trinita dei Monti: Overlooking the Spanish Steps; the church that haunted Marie through an engraving of Ingres on its terrace (083, Dec 1878)

Significance for Marie

Rome represented several transformative dimensions in Marie's development:
- Artistic awakening: Direct contact with the greatest Western art from classical to Baroque opened her artistic sensibility, as she acknowledged retrospectively
- Critical independence: She learned to trust her own judgment against received opinion, dismissing Raphael and challenging Michelangelo while responding passionately to Titian and Velazquez
- Romantic experience: The Antonelli affair was her most sustained and multi-layered romance to date, involving masked balls, horseback rides, jealousy, and family opposition
- Political awareness: Her departure-day essay on the decline of Roman aristocracy reveals sophisticated comparative political analysis at age 17
- Social self-knowledge: The family's inability to penetrate Roman society -- despite knowing "tout le monde de vue" -- deepened Marie's awareness of their precarious position
- Cosmopolitan formation: Navigating a complex social world divided between papal and royal loyalties, Black and White aristocracy, Italian and foreign colonies

Rome remained a touchstone throughout the diary. In 1878: "Explique qui voudra l'enthousiasme qu'on eprouve pour Rome" (083, Dec 3). In 1880, she could not bear to read newspaper reports of Rome's Carnival: "Quand les journaux en parlent je passe, parce que ca me rend trop triste!" (091, Feb 23, 1881). In 1881: "Allez donc a Rome voir le soleil se coucher derriere la coupole" (093, Oct 14).

Her final word on Rome came in a quotation she first embraced, then subverted (057.0062-0063, Apr 12, 1876): > "C'est a Rome que je voudrais vivre, aimer et mourir." > > Non, ecoutez, je voudrais vivre ou je serai bien, aimer partout, et mourir nulle part.

Diary Timeline in Rome

| Dates | Carnet | Key Events | |-------|--------|------------| | Jan 2-9, 1876 | 051 | Departure from Nice, arrival Jan 3, first impressions, Hotel de Londres | | Jan 10-23 | 052 | Apartment hunting, papal audience (Jan 22), exploring ruins | | Jan 24 - Feb 11 | 053 | Vatican visit, Sistine Chapel, Colosseum in detail, Doria Gallery, social frustrations | | Feb 12-29 | 054 | Carnival (Feb 19-29), Antonelli romance begins, masked ball at Capitoline, painting ciociara | | Mar 1-27 | 055 | Post-Carnival, horseback rides in Campagna, Antonelli declares love, Torlonia obsession | | Mar 28 - Apr 9 | 056 | Antonelli crisis, convent retreat, Torlonia fixation, painting with Katorbinsky | | Apr 10-12 | 057 | Final days, political essay, departure for Naples |

Related Entries

- #Florence -- visited before Rome and en route
- #Naples -- visited after Rome (April-May 1876)
- #Venice -- visited on Italian tour
- #Pincio -- fashionable Roman promenade
- #Paris -- where Marie later pursued her artistic career
- #Antonelli_Pietro -- primary Roman romantic interest
- #Botkine -- Russian painter, first artistic contact in Rome
- #Nice -- Marie's primary home, constant comparison point

Sources

- Blind, Mathilde. The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff, 1890. Introduction and abridged translation.
- Kernberger, Katherine. I Am the Most Interesting Book of All (Vol I) / Lust for Glory (Vol II), Fonthill Press, 2013.
- Wikipedia: Rome, Roman Question, Black Nobility, Capture of Rome, French Academy in Rome, Roman Carnival, Giacomo Antonelli

%% 2026-02-10T11:00:00 RSR: Created comprehensive entry replacing corrupted previous content. Based on published diary sources and biographical research. %% %% 2026-05-24T14:00:00 RSR: Major expansion from Basic to Comprehensive. Added paragraph IDs (GLO_ROME.0001-0046). Added extensive diary quotes with paragraph references from carnets 051-057 and later entries. Added Wikipedia links throughout. Expanded sections: arrival, artistic encounters (Vatican, Sistine Chapel, Colosseum, St. Peter's, Doria Gallery), Carnival (4 sub-sections with quotes), Antonelli romance timeline, Campagna rides, social frustrations, papal audience, political essay on Roman aristocracy. Added historical context: Roman Question, Black/White aristocracy with Wikipedia refs, French Academy/Villa Medici/Prix de Rome. Added diary timeline table. Added later diary references (1878-1881). Sources: Blind (1890), Kernberger (2013), Wikipedia, diary originals (carnets 050-057, 083, 090, 091, 093). %%