The elusive self : storytelling and the journey to identity in Sveva Caetani's autobiographical series "Recapitulation"

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2008-04-10T06:04:45Z

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Avery, Karen Rose.

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Canadian artist Sveva Caetani was born in Rome in 191 7 and emigrated to Canada in 192 1 with her parents, Leone Caetani and Ofelia Fabiani. The family settled in Vernon, B.C. where Caetani was to remain until her death in 1994. Between the years of 1975 and 1992, Caetani produced a series of 56 watercolour paintings entitled Recapitulation that recounts the story of her life. Drawing on Dante's Divine Comedy as a model for the overarching format of the series, Caetani adopts the role of a pilgrim on a spiritual journey. Just as Dante called on Virgil to act as his guide, Caetani calls on her father to accompany her on her personal journey. By establishing a voice that bears witness to the tragic circumstances of her life, Sveva Caetani reconnects with her past in order to alter the shape of memory. The evidence Caetani offers is her own life and the country of her imagination; the extraordinary life of a woman and the separate life as a writerlartist. She draws us into personal memory and family history, weaving autobiography into analysis.

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