Portraits in Italy : Lord Byron and the Countess Guiccioli

Abstract

Teresa Gamba, the Countess Guiccioli (1800-1873) was much more insouciant than she appears in the half-length portrait by William Edward West. By all accounts, she was beautiful and vibrant, with a personality impudent enough to fascinate a jaded poet some twelve years her senior and to hold his interest for more than four years. The portrait raises many questions that have not been addressed in the previous literature, among them why the painting displeased all parties involved. It is time for Teresa Gamba to receive the scholarly attention she deserves. First, she was a highly significant figure in the life of the 19th century British poet, George Gordon, the sixth Lord Byron, who virtually defined Romanticism and who was a celebrity of star proportions in his own times. One cannot understand Byron without trying to understand the woman he loved and whom he called his "last Passion". I will suggest here the presence of a strong woman, whose presence has been systematically suppressed, almost excised, because previous scholars have taken an imaginary gaze of a male taking a mistress.