A Study of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen - Autograph Postcard

Autograph Poscard Signed by Mario Praz to the Countess Pecci Blunt.

Rome, January 31st 1936.  In Italian and English. Perfectly readable, very good condition except for minor aging signs.

From Udine, the Italian critic of art and literature, Mario Praz sends this postcard to the Countess Pecci-Blunt, the patron of arts and the closed-friend of artists and intellectuals, reporting the title of the recommended book.  "The Renessaince of Architecture in Southern Italy, a Study of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (...)".

The background: 

Mario Praz has had a profound impact not only on history and English literature, but also on writings about interior design and decoration. Surely He was collecting essays for   An Illustrated History of Interior Decoration from Pompeii to Art Nouveau   that will be published in 1964. His work "provides a selection of visual representations of domesticity from ancient Greece through to the Art Nouveau, and a commentary upon them." The images show the interior decor and design of Greek, Roman, Medieval, Renaissance and Victorian Homes in Europe.

Includes frame: 31.5 x 41.5 cm

Mario Praz (Rome, 1896- 1982)

Italian-born critic of art and literature, and scholar of English literature, Mario Praz is best-known as author of The Romantic Agony (1933), a comprehensive survey of the decadent, erotic and morbid themes of the European authors of the late 18th and 19th centuries. 

Countess Anna Laetitia Pecci  (Rome, 1885 - Marlia, 1971)

Better known as Mimì , the Italian noblewoman was an art collector, patron and  nephew of Pope Leo XIII. Extremely volcanic, she was very active in the cultural field, opening numerous lounges, galleries and theaters. In 1919 she married Cecil Blumenthal, later changed to Blunt, a wealthy Jewish banker from New York, heir to an important collection of nineteenth-century French painting. His Parisian and Roman salons was frequented by artists and intellectuals of the caliber of  Alberto Moravia, Mario Praz, Salvador Dalì, Paul Valery, Poulenc, Paul Claudel.