ZENOBIA'S CHRISTMAS
The Barettoni family wanted to dedicate an exhibition to Zenobia Bussandri Barettoni (1905-1972)
In a suggestive Christmas atmosphere, on 7 and 8 December 2019 in the entrance hall of the factory the Zenobia Christmas table was re-proposed with the majolica service that she used for important anniversaries. Next to the beautiful table, some of her ceramic works have been exhibited depicting red-clay ladies bathed in monocolored enamel, equipped with a parasol, hat and fashionable clothes of her time. The movements of the garments and the posture that give the works harmony and balance are admirable.
Zenobia was born in 1905 by Giacomo and Noemi Bussandri, but to tell about her we need to start from her maternal grandfather, Oscar Chilesotti (1848-1916). He was an international musicologist and violin maker. Graduated in Padua in 1871, he was the first to decode ancient and important musical cryptographies. He attended Verdi, D'Annunzio, Ezra Pound and many other personalities of the 20th Century. This cultural environment allowed Noemi, Oscar Chilesotti's daughter and her husband Giacomo Bussandri, high officer of the Royal Italian Army and professor of two university chairs, to develop an extraordinary sensitivity for art.
Many photographs and letters of Zenobia have been preserved, and there is the portrait with the gilded frame painted by Pompeo Pianezzola: real size, straight bust, elegant bearing, curly cured hair, cloche hat, the gloved hand on the fur boa, a necklace of semi-precious stones and ... looks like a queen! The painting portrays her as beautiful, but in reality she was not a perfect beauty, but she fascinated anyone with her manners and elegance.
Zenobia spent his youth in Venice where she completed her classical and linguistic studies (she spoke French and English correctly) and attended painting lessons by the master Fabio Mauroner.
In 1931 her family moved to Bassano in their 16th Century Villa in Marchesane where her father, a lover of antiques and a collector of paintings, was the one who started the reproduction of antique furniture by giving way to an activity that is still pre-eminent throughout the territory Bassano.
Little more than twenty years old Zenobia knew the ing. Guglielmo Barettoni, owner of the former Antonibon factory, and fell in love with him. They were married on 25 April 1935.
They had two children: Lodovico and Adriana. She was a very attentive and caring mother, a sporty woman who loved the mountains, skied and climbed.
She traveled a lot, driven by her desire to know and see for herself what she read in books and encyclopedias. She often left for cruises. Zenobia also decided to get a driver's license to accompany her two teenage children to visit Austria, Switzerland and parts of Europe.
A woman of great culture and refined ways. An eclectic and elegant, curious and modern artist. A wife who participated in her husband's working life because with her intuition and good taste she gave valid and important suggestions that put into practice turned out to be very important.
She died in 1972.