Scanno Costume

Among the numerous existing replicas (such as the one owned by Del Cimmuto of Pescocostanzo, exhibited at the 2015 Milan Expo, or the one at the “Costantino Barbella” Museum in Chieti), this one, purchased in 2022 by the National Museum of Abruzzo, is of extreme interest not only for its excellent workmanship but, above all, for the date “1896” on the back.
This information is particularly useful considering that, to date, the date of execution of the marble version of this bust exhibited at the Civic Diocesan Museum of Sulmona has not yet been unanimously agreed upon by scholars. Tradition has long recognized the beautiful figure of a woman in traditional Scanno dress with the characteristic “cappellitto” on her head as none other than Antonietta Corvi of Sulmona, Barbella’s wife, whom he met through his friend Antonio De Nino and married in 1889. Regardless of this hypothesis, the beautiful bust, replicated several times in terracotta and also translated into marble, fully reflects Barbella’s profound love for the Abruzzo people and their traditions. Having visited Scanno as early as 1881 with D’Annunzio and his friends from the Cenacolo, the artist drew from this experience the inspiration to rediscover local folklore, understood as an inexhaustible source of his own artistic creativity and thus of his people’s identity.