The material of drawings and photographs presented on this page was personally photographed by me, at the request of the painter, during a visit to Silvano Caselli's house and studio in 1996.
A couple of additional images of portraits of Callas made by Caselli as a preliminary study of the subject to be painted are available, but normal pencil sketches, nothing special.
The dynamics and sequence of the various studies to arrive at the final portrait were deduced by me in agreement with the potential sequentiality of the images, but not (that I recall) discussed with Caselli himself.
Caselli simply showed some photos from his album so that I could take photographs of them, in case they could be useful for the presentation relating to the execution of the modified silkscreen of the portrait.
An interesting thing: in the photograph showing the beginning of the work, you can see an improved rendering showing the drawing of a previous phase of the work, stuck on the bottom while the final painting is being started.
It is worth noting that there is a large line on the drawn face, perhaps meaning that the drawing did not pass the approval of Meneghini or Maria Callas.
According to the exhibition “Maria Callas. The Exhibition”, curated by Massimiliano Cappellauna in Verona, at the AMO - Palazzo Forti - March 11 - September 18, 2016, the dress in the painting, present in section thirteen (Details of Diva. The wardrobe), would be a creation of Biki, a designer that Callas especially liked.
