Amelia Almagià Ambron (Ancona 1877-Rome 1960) - Flowers

Amelia Almagià Ambron (Ancona 1877-Rome 1960) - Flowers Oil painting on canvas signed lower right and dated 1941 Amelia Almagià Ambron was born in Ancona in 1877 into an Italo-Jewish family. The family was well-off and encouraged the love of painting in Amelia and her sisters. Amelia, a talented painter, studied under Antonio Mancini, a Roman painter of the Verismo school. Her life was spent between Rome and Alexandria, Egypt, before her marriage to Aldo Ambron, which led her to settle in Rome. Appreciated for her luminous portraits and airy landscapes, she was the undisputed reference point for a vibrant cultural salon attended by numerous artists including Marinetti, Giovanni Colacicchi, Mario Tozzi, and Mancini himself. Bound by a deep and fraternal friendship with Giacomo Balla (a protagonist of the early Futurist movement), she hosted the master and his family for extended periods at her estate in Cotorniano in the Sienese countryside, and later, from 1926 to 1929, at Villa Ambron in Parioli. Numerous postcards and letters sent by Balla to Amelia's family document the close bond between the two families. Amelia had three children, Emilio, Nora, and Gilda, all passionate about art. Emilio would become a highly acclaimed artist. A restless traveler between Europe, Africa, and Asia, Emilio became, in the post-World War II era, a proponent of a return to classicism and figurative art. Amelia died in Rome in 1960. She lived a double role that was discriminatory in her time: that of a woman – in an era when society was oppressive for women, destined exclusively for domestic life and discouraged, if not outright hindered, in their attempts to pursue their aspirations and emerge in the cultural sphere, a sector where men were considered the sole custodians of true professionalism – and that of a Jew. The condition of social minority, rather than becoming an obstacle, transformed into an impetus for affirmation and creative independence. In 2012, the exhibition "Balla/Ambron. The Twenties between Rome and Cotorniano" was held in Bologna at the Fondazione Cardinale Giacomo Lercaro. In 2014, her works were presented in the exhibition "Artiste del Novecento tra visione e identità ebraica" (Female Artists of the Twentieth Century between Vision and Jewish Identity) at the Galleria d’arte Moderna in Rome.