Francesca Lechi
Francesca Ghirardi Lechi (1773–1806) was an Italian revolutionary and figure in Milanese society. She was nicknamed "Fanni." FamilyLechi was born in Brescia, Lombardy and was a member of the noble Lechi family. She was the daughter of Count Faustino Lechi of Brescia and Countess Doralice Bielli and had five brothers: General Giuseppe Lechi (1766–1836), Angelo Lechi (1769–1850), Bernardino Lechi (1775–1869), General Teodoro Lechi (1778–1866) and Luigi Lechi (1786–1867).[1] Lechi ran away from home to marry Francesco Ghirardi, a lawyer from the Republic of Venice, on 21 August 1793.[1] He was a family friend and twenty years her senior.[2] They had a daughter named Carolina.[3] LifeLechi was educated at the College of Salò, then at the College of Castiglione.[1] Lechi took part in revolutionary activity in Brescia.[1] On 16 March 1797, she purchased silks in white, red and green from three different shops in order to avoid suspicion, to use as material for a tricolour flag.[4] The flag was to be hoisted in Broletto by her brother Giuseppe during the Brescian revolution,[2] activity which lead to the creation of the Republic of Brescia, a temporary French client republic, on 18 March 1797.[5] This symbol of Italian unification later became the tricolour flag of Italy. Lechi moved with her husband to Milan, where she became a society figure and loved to dress as an Amazon warrior or her literary heroes at balls.[2] Lechi met Joachim Murat, Napoleon Bonaparte's right-hand man and the first King of Naples of the House of Murat, at a ball in Milan.[2] She became his mistress,[1][6] and followed him to Paris before returning to her husband.[2] In 1801, she met the realist writer Stendhal in Milan. Stendhal described her in his book Vie de Napoléon as:[1][7]
Lechi died in 1806.[1] The date and place of her burial are unknown.[2] RepresentationsA miniature portrait of Lechi on ivory, by Giovanni Battista Gigola [it], which shows her her bare-breasted in a provocative pose, is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.[3] An oil painting of Lechi with her daughter Carolina was painted circa 1800-1801.[8] References
|
||||||||||||||||
_MET_ep26.168.33.R.jpg)
