Doris Keane

Doris Keane (1881-1945) was a well-known American theatre actress. During the 1910s, she was successful on both Broadway and the West End with the play 'Romance'. She also starred in the film version, her only film.


British postcard by Beagles' Postcards, no. 237. J. Photo: Bassano.


British postcard. Doris Keane in the dress of 'Romance' (1913), her most popular stage play, which was eventually filmed too, in 1920.


British postcard in the Arcadian Series by Rotary Photo, no. 17-2. Photo: Foulsham and Banfield Ltd. Doris Keane and Owen Nares in the stage play 'Romance' (1913). This postcard promotes the London stage version of the play, performed in 1915 at the Duke of York's Theatre. It was Keane's most popular play and was eventually filmed too in 1920, again with Keane.

The 7th-longest-running play in London and New York

Doris Keane was born in St. Joseph, Michigan, in 1881. Her parents were Joseph Keane and Minnie Florence Winter. She was educated privately in Chicago, New York, Paris, and Rome and at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Doris Keane debuted on stage in 1903 in a minor role in 'Whitewashing Julia', but she went on to play leading roles in 'The Happy Marriage' in 1909 and 'The Lights o' London' in 1911.

Keane's claim to fame was her part as Margherita Cavallini in 'Romance', a play written in 1913 by Edward Sheldon, which Keane brought to success in various stage productions from 1913, both in the US and in Europe.

The play opened on 10 February 1913 at the Maxine Elliott Theatre, New York. William Courtenay co-starred as the bishop who falls in love with a woman. Sheldon reportedly fell in love with her and yearned for her all his life.

In London, Keane played opposite Owen Nares in the play in 1915-1916. It was a huge success, resulting in almost 1050 performances, at first at the Duke of York's Theater and afterwards at the Lyric Theatre - making it the 7th longest running play in London and New York.


British postcard by Lilywhite LTD, no. LE 71.


British postcard by Rotary Photo E.C., no. 11872 A. Photo: Sarony N.Y.

The only film Keane ever made

In the 1920s, Doris Keane did revivals of the play, from 1921 at the Playhouse Theatre in New York, with Basil Sydney as her co-star, and in 1927 in London, again opposite Owen Nares.

The only film Keane ever made was the film adaptation of the play, made in 1920, directed by Chester Withey, and produced by the legendary D.W. Griffith. The film was released by the newly formed company United Artists. The silent film Romance is now considered lost.

Keane was married to fellow actor Basil Sydney, who was 13 years her junior. They acted together in the film adaptation of Romance (1920). She played Catherine the Great in 'Czarina' in 1922 after Sheldon had revised the play for her. Their marriage lasted from 1918 to 1925. Keane also finished her stage career in 1925, with the play 'Starlight'.

In 1930, Greta Garbo played in the early sound film adaptation Romance, directed by Clarence Brown. Her co-stars were Lewis Stone and Gavin Gordon. It was Garbo's second sound film and is seen as one of her lesser films.

Doris Keane died in 1945 in New York at the LeRoy Sanitarium, where she had been admitted sick with cancer. She had one child, Ronda Keane (1915–2008), born in Cannes, France. Ronda's father was the financier Howard Gould. He acknowledged his paternity but never married Doris. Keane was a favourite subject for artists of the day, among them the sculptor Jacob Epstein and the portraitist De Laszlo. There are at least two Royal Doulton figurines of her, one holding the monkey that was part of the play 'Romance'.


British postcard by Beagles, no. 237. R. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield, LTD. Owen Nares and Doris Keane in 'Romance'.


British postcard in the Arcadian Series by Rotary Photo, no. 17-3. Photo: Foulsham & Manfield LTD. Owen Nares and Doris Keane.

Sources: Wikipedia (English, French and Italian) and IMDb.

Der Günstling von Schönbrunn (1929)

Ivan Petrovich and Lil Dagover starred in the German part-talkie Der Günstling von Schönbrunn / The Favourite of Schonbrunn (1929), a historical comedy produced by Hermann Millakowsky for Greenbaum-Film. Erich Waschneck and Max Reichmann were the directors, and Ladislaus Vajda wrote the screenplay.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 702. Photo: Sofar / Greenbaum-Film. Lil Dagover as Empress Maria Theresia in the period drama La Bague impériale, the French release title of the German film Der Günstling von Schönbrunn / The Favourite of Schönbrunn (Erich Waschneck, Max Reichmann, 1929).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4503/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Greenbaum-Film. Henry Stuart as Emperor Franz I in Der Günstling von Schönbrunn / The Favourite of Schönbrunn (Erich Waschneck, Max Reichmann, 1929).

A handsome Pandur Colonel at a half-ruined castle in the Hungarian Puszta

Austria and Hungary, in the 1740s. Baron Franz von der Trenck (Iván Petrovich) makes a rather meagre living at a half-ruined castle in the Hungarian Puszta. One day, with the help of his regiment of Pandurs, Trenck rescues two beautiful strangers from a gang of Bohemian bandits. After a night of heavy drinking, to the sound of czardas music, Trenck falls in love with one of the ladies, who claims to be the wife of a Viennese jeweller. When they must part ways, she gives Trenck a precious ring out of gratitude for his manly and courageous rescue.

Fascinated by the beautiful stranger, Trenck, now a colonel of the Pandurs, sets off one day on horseback for Vienna to search for the lady of his heart. Eventually, the baron receives an invitation to the court at Schönbrunn Palace and is introduced to Empress Maria Theresia (Lil Dagover). Trenck can hardly believe his eyes: it is the very lady to whom he has given his heart, and her companion is none other than her lady-in-waiting, Countess Nostiz (Vera Malinovskaya).

For Trenck, his world briefly comes crashing down, for he knows that the empress of his heart will always remain out of his reach. To prove his loyalty and devotion to her, Colonel Trenck volunteers to take up arms against the Turks who threaten the country. One evening, before he goes to war, Trenck goes gambling. To his great misfortune, he loses the imperial gift — the ring — to a comrade (Jack Mylong-Munz) who had been tasked by Maria Theresa’s husband, Emperor Franz (Henry Stuart), with retrieving this ring, once a gift from Franz to the Empress. Trenck is determined to get the ring back, but the new owner refuses to comply and even defends his new possession with a sword in hand.

Trenck fights with great bravery and scores a major victory. However, since he has disobeyed an order, the brave Trenck is punished with imprisonment in a fortress despite the glorious outcome of the battle. But his empress has long since forgiven him and helps her favourite escape. Finally, the empress matches her daring hussar with Countess Nostitz, who has loved him all her life.

Baron Fran(t)z Freiherr von der Trenck (1711-1749) a.k.a. Trenck the Elder, 1711–1749) was a historical colonel of the Pandurs in Vienna during the War of the Austrian Succession (1741–1746). The romantic – and partly apocryphal – portrayal of Trenck in this film comedy obscures the fact that he was a rather brutal warlord and that his pandurs left a bitter legacy in the regions they plundered and devastated.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4501/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Greenbaum-Film. Lil Dagover and Iván Petrovich in Der Günstling von Schönbrunn / The Favourite of Schönbrunn (Max Reichmann, Erich Waschneck, 1929).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4502/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Greenbaum-Film. Lil Dagover and Iván Petrovich in Der Günstling von Schönbrunn / The Favourite of Schönbrunn (Max Reichmann, Erich Waschneck, 1929).

A silent and a sound version

Der Günstling von Schönbrunn / The Favourite of Schönbrunn (Max Reichmann, Erich Waschneck, 1929) was filmed primarily in May and June 1929 at the Efa and Tobis studios in Lankwitz, as well as at the Muto studios in Berlin. Since sound films were gradually gaining acceptance in the second half of that year, several sound sequences were reshot in September 1929 so that the largely silent film could still be marketed as a 'sound film'.

In its silent version, Der Günstling von Schönbrunn / The Favourite of Schönbrunn passed censorship on 14 August 1929, and was banned for minors. At that time, the film was 2,721 meters long, divided into seven acts. As a 'sound film', Der Günstling von Schönbrunn / The Favourite of Schönbrunn was submitted to the censors on 25 October 1929. At that point, it measured only 2,521 meters, still divided into seven acts. The premiere as a silent film took place on 30 August 1929, in Leipzig, with the Berlin premiere following on September 16 of the same year.

On 4 November 1929, Der Günstling von Schönbrunn / The Favourite of Schönbrunn was also screened with sound and sound effects as a 'sound film'. Max Reichmann had directed the sound film scenes. Georg Witt was the production manager. Alfred Junge and Erich Czerwonski were responsible for the film sets. Additional contributors to the sound film version included sound expert Guido Bagier, composer Fritz Wenneis, production manager Ludwig Behrends and Andrew Marton.

At the time, a version for English-speaking audiences was also produced under the titles The Second Kiss and The King of the Empress. It premiered in London on 15 April 1930. French-speaking audiences could see the film in its French-language version, La bague impériale. In Austria, the film was released under the title Maria Theresia. Other titles included Trenck, der Pandur, Die Kaiserin, Der Ring der Kaiserin, Der König der Kaiserin, and Der Kaiserring.

Film critic Siegfried Kracauer wrote in the Frankfurter Zeitung: "Der Günstling von Schönbrunn / The Favourite of Schönbrunn is, in any case, an interesting experiment. (…) The happy ending takes the form of spoken dialogue. In itself, it is entirely appropriate to highlight such a key moment in this way, setting it apart from the flow of the narrative. It is just that the art of dialogue is still in a complete mess. Leaving aside the inadequacy of the technical reproduction, the reality of the sound destroys that of the film strip. (…) Whatever the outcome of the experiment, it is worth seeing and hearing."


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5712. Photo: Lux-Film-Verleih / Greenbaum-Film. Vera Malinovskaya in Der Günstling von Schönbrunn / The Favourite of Schönbrunn (Erich Waschneck, Max Reichmann, 1929).


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5784. Greenbaum-Film. Photo: Lux Film. Vera Malinovskaya and Ivan Petrovich in Der Günstling von Schönbrunn / The Favourite of Schönbrunn (Erich Waschneck, Max Reichmann (sound film scenes), 1929).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4500/1. Photo: Greenbaum-Film. Ivan Petrovich as Oberst Trenck in the German part-talkie Der Günstling von Schönbrunn / The Favourite of Schonbrunn (Erich Waschneck and Max Reichmann, 1929).

Sources: Hervé Dumont (Encyclopédie du film d’Histoire - French),Filmportal, Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Souvenirs from Bologna (2)

Last June, we visited Bologna for the Cinema Ritrovato Festival 2026 and took several souvenirs back home. Every year, we donate the festival catalogue to the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute for their amazing collection. Of course, we also bought vintage postcards for EFSP at the film book fair, the 'Mostra mercato dell'editoria cinematografica'. This month, we will share our treasures in three posts. Last week, Ivo Blom selected his postcards of Italian stars and films. Today, Paul van Yperen shares the vintage postcards he bought at the fair, and some new, interesting cards he found at the festival.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7492/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Paramount. Larry 'Buster' Crabbe and Frances Dee in King of the Jungle (H. Bruce Humberstone, Max Marcin, 1933). American film star Larry 'Buster' Crabbe (1908-1983) was also a two-time Olympic swimmer. He was the only actor who played Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and Tarzan - the top three pulp heroes of the 1930s. American actress Frances Dee (1909-2004) got her big break when she was offered a leading role opposite Maurice Chevalier in The Playboy of Paris (1930) by Ludwig Berger. She also starred in Josef von Sternberg's An American Tragedy (1931) and Jacques Tourneur's psychological horror film I Walked With a Zombie (1943).


Italian postcard by ASER, Roma, no. 07. Photo: Lucchi. Trio Lescano or Lescano Trio was a trio of Dutch sisters singing Italian swing: Alexandra (1910-1987), Judith (1913-2007), and Kitty Leschan (1919-1965), whose names were Italianised into Alessandra, Giuditta and Caterinetta (Caterina) Lescano. Trio Lescano was an Italian version of American groups such as the Boswell Sisters and the Andrews Sisters and became extremely popular in Italy in the 1930s and 1940s. Their hits 'Tulipan' and 'Ciribiribin' are evergreens in Italy. In 1943, the golden career of the Jewish girls suddenly halted due to the Nazis, but after the war, two of them continued their careers in Argentina.


Italian postcard by Grafitalia già Pizzi e Pizio, Milano. Photos: Manderfilm. Eduardo De Filippo, Peppino De Filippo, Cesco Basecchio and Paolo Bonecchi in Il Sogno di Tutti / The Dream of Everything (Oreste Biancoli, Ladislao Kish, 1940). Neapolitan actor Eduardo De Filippo (1900-1984) was also a playwright, screenwriter, author and poet, best known for his plays Filumena Marturano and Napoli Milionaria. He began to direct films in 1940. During the 1950s, he turned out a string of successful light comedies, many based on his plays. In addition to writing and directing his films, he wrote or collaborated on films with such directors as Vittorio De Sica. His brother, the comic actor Peppino De Filippo (1903-1980) was a star of theatre, television and cinema. He started his career on stage with Eduardo and their sister Titina. In the 1950s and 1960s, he became the partner of Totó in very popular comedy films and appeared in two classics by Federico Fellini.


Austrian collector card by Amag. Photo: Hugo Engel Film. Dolly Haas in Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße / A Girl of the Street (Hans Steinhoff, 1932). German-born, British stage and screen actress Dolly Haas (1910-1994) was popular in the 1930s as a vivacious, red-haired gamine often wearing trousers in German and British films. Although she got a 3-year contract with Columbia and worked in Hollywood with Alfred Hitchcock, Dolly's American career mainly took place on and Off-Broadway.


Spanish postcard, no. 2341. Photo: Paramount. Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature in Samson and Delilah (Cecil B. DeMille, 1949). Glamorous and seductive film star Hedy Lamarr (1913–2000) was born in Austria. The notorious Czechoslovak film Extase / Ecstasy (1933) made her an international sensation, and Louis B. Mayer invited her to Hollywood, where she became ‘the most beautiful woman in films’. Hunky American leading man Victor Mature (1913-1999) starred in Biblical Epics like Samson and Delilah (1949) and The Robe (1953), and was known for his dark good looks and mega-watt smile. He also appeared in the classics One Million B.C. (1940), My Darling Clementine (1946), Kiss of Death (1947), and in a large number of musicals opposite such stars as Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable.

Alexander Verlag

German postcard by Alexander Verlag, Berlin. Photo: Jean-Claude Sauer / Paris Match / Scoop. Caption: Claude Sautet and Romy Schneider, 1971. The postcard was issued to promote the book 'Claude Sautet - Regisseur der Zwischentöne'. At the film book fair, the Berlin publishing company Alexander Verlag presented several recent film publications. Some were accompanied by free cards.


German postcard by Alexander Verlag, Berlin, 2026. The card promotes the books 'Mein letzter Seufzer' (Luis Buñuel, Mon dernier soupir) by Luis Buñuel and 'Buñuels Erwachen' (Le Réveil de Buñuel) by Jean-Claude Carrière.


German postcard by Alexander Verlag, Berlin. Photo: Klaus Mettig. Caption: Jack Smith in Köln / Cologne, 1974. Promotion card for the book 'Jack Smith - What's Underground About Marshmallows? Texts by and about Jack Smith'. Jack Smith (1932–1989) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pioneer of underground cinema. He is a founding father of American performance art and has been critically recognised as a master photographer.


German postcard by Alexander Verlag, Berlin. Michael Caine in Blue Ice (Russell Mulcahy, 1992). With his spectacles and his Cockney accent, Michael Caine (1933) became an unusual but ultra-cool star of the British cinema of the 1960s. He starred in memorable films like Alfie (1966), The Italian Job (1969), and Get Carter (1971). The lean and tall Brit branched out to Hollywood, where his film choices often seemed dictated by his chequebook. Caine proved to be endurable, and a new generation of film fans love him for his mentors and father figures in blockbusters like The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception (2010) and Interstellar (2014).

Festival promotion cards

Italian card by Cineteca Bologna for Il Cinema Ritrovato Edizione XL, 2026. Photo: Catherine Spaak, Enrico Maria Salerno, Marc Michel (right) and María Fernanda Ladrón de Guevara (left) in La Bugiarda / Six Days a Week (Luigi Comencini, 1965). I loved this hilarious sixties comedy. It's so sad that Il Cinema Ritrovato stopped making programme cards for the screenings at the Piazza Maggiore. These cards were wonderful with great pictures and text only on the flip side. I miss them.


Italian promotion card for Le Giornate del Cinema Muto / Pordenone Silent Film Festival 45. Photo: Collection La Cinémathèque française. Fern Andra and Hans Heinrich von Twardowski in Genuine (Robert Wiene, 1920). Ivo Blom will attend Le Giornate to present the new website of the Museum of Dream Worlds.

Viva Varda!

Italian promotion card by Cineteca Bologna for the exhibition 'Viva Varda! - Il Cinema è Donna'. Photo: self-portrait by Agnès Varda, circa 1950. Caption: Bologna, Galleria Modernissimo, dal 5 marzo 2026 al 10 gennaio 2027.


French postcard by Ciné-tamaris, 2022. Design: Christophe Vallaux. Caption: May 1955, I take a train in third class and arrive in Cannes. My baggage includes a sturdy canvas sack with a wooden bottom. It contains the 7 reels of my first film, La Pointe Courte. It weighs 30 kilos! Agnès Varda.


French postcard by Ciné-tamaris, 2023. Design: Christophe Vallaux. Caption: The North Sea and the sand – that’s where it all began for me. The beginning of what I more or less know about myself. All the holidays of my childhood. And when I hear the names Knokke-Heist, Blankenberge, Ostend, Mariakerke, Middelkerke, La Panne and Zeebrugge, they are music to my ears. Agnès Varda.


French poster postcard card by Ciné-tamaris, 2024. French film poster for L'Une chante, l'autre pas (Agnès Varda, 1977). Design: Patrick Tanguy / Nuit de Chine, 2018, based on the original poster by Michel Landi. Caption: ‘This feminist film, made in 1976, highlighted and set to music the struggles for the right to contraception and abortion. Other struggles continue: for equal pay, for gender parity in decision-making bodies, and so on. This will require a commitment from everyone to change their behaviour.’ Agnès Varda.


Sticker. Agnès Varda and JR.

Next week, the third and final 'souvenirs from Bologna' post will follow.

The Sculptogravures of Domenico Mastroianni

A fascinating postcard genre, widely distributed during the early 20th Century, was the sculptogravure. Domenico Mastroianni (1876-1962) was the inventor and the master of this genre. He made ‘ephemeral’ sculptures from simple modelling clay, for the sole purpose of being photographed. Unlike conventional sculptures, which can be viewed from various angles, his figures were intended to be viewed only from the front. The resulting photographs were printed and distributed on around 600 different postcards by the French editor A. Noyer and the Italian editor A. Traldi. Mastroianni dealt with both sacred and secular themes, and his postcard series on 'Quo vadis?' and 'La divina commedia' were particularly successful. Was Mastroianni inspired by early films, or was it the other way around?


French postcard by A.N. (Armand Noyer), Paris, series of 18 Luxochrome postcards, card 3. Design: Domenico Mastroianni (1913). Quo vadis?: Eunice is kissing the statue of Petronius.


French postcard by A.N. (Armand Noyer), Paris, no. 276/3. Sculptobromure: Domenico Mastroianni (1918). Quo vadis?: Eunice is kissing the statue of Petronius.


Italian coloured postcard. Design: Domenico Mastroianni (N.N.) Quo vadis?: The Kiss of Eunice.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, 1925. Artwork: Domenico Mastroianni. Series on 'La Divina Commedia' (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) by Dante Alighieri.Caption: Inferno, Canto I. Dante lost in the dark woods.


French postcard by A.N. (Armand Noyer), Paris, no. 73. Sculptochromie by Domenico Mastroianni. Series Vie de Christ (Life of Christ, 1911). Scene Descente de la croix (Descent from the Cross).

Quo vadis?

Domenico Mastroianni was born in Arpino in 1876 to Pietro Mastroianni, a craftsman, and Angela Redivivo. His nephew Umberto was an artist too. His brother's grandson later became one of Italy's most famous actors, Marcello Mastroianni. One of Marcello's baptist names was Domenico. Domenico learnt woodworking in his father’s workshop. From a very young age, he showed great talent as a draughtsman. He received his first training in terracotta and ceramic work at the workshops that had been operating in Arpino since the early 19th century. Appreciated by the collector Carlo Quadrini, a member of one of Arpino’s wealthiest families, Domenico moved to Rome in 1894. He stayed as Quadrino's guest in Via del Babuino. He collaborated with the sculptor Baldassarre Surdi on various installations for his nativity scene.

He stayed in Vienna, Budapest, Berlin, London and Brussels, and above all in Paris, where he was captivated by Art Nouveau, to some extent also by Auguste Rodin, and by the dynamic style of H. Daumier’s works, from whom Domenico seems to have drawn the romantic idea of beauty to be found in modern society. He remained in Paris for a full twelve years. Domenico worked for several years as a self-taught sculptor. He created small clay busts of figures from history and literature. In 1903, he married Adele Durante in Rome. In France, they had two children: Alberto (1904-1974), who would become a draughtsman and illustrator, and Adriana (1906).

Domenico Mastroianni became known to the main audience because of his artworks made in clay and afterwards photographed to serve on widely distributed postcards, named Sculptobromure. Sometimes he overpainted the sculptures with saturated paint, possibly oil painting, then called Sculptochromie. In 1913, the French editor Armand Noyer (A.N.) made a series of 18 cards of his work with scenes from the novel 'Quo vadis?' by Henryk Sienkiewicz. The first series was released in the year the Cines film company of Rome released its blockbuster epic Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913), adapted from the same novel by Sienkiewicz.

The film made a massive impression worldwide and was shown in opera houses and legitimate theatres with choirs and orchestras. Even royalty went to see it. The film set a new standard for Italian epics on Antiquity. It would be interesting to know if Mastroianni's postcard series was released before or after the release of the film, but we don't know. In 1914, Noyer made a second postcard series of painted clayworks with slightly different views, such as a shortened view of Ursus fighting the bull.

In 1918, Noyer made a sepia postcard series of the unpainted clayworks, the Sculptobromure. Finally, an unknown Italian editor used Mastroianni's unpainted clayworks for an undated postcard series, but the publisher used a kind of watercolour ink to colour parts of the image.


French postcard by A.N. (Noyer), Paris, series of 18 Sculptochromie postcards, card no. 1. Artwork: Domenico Mastroianni, 1913. Quo vadis?: Vinicius greets Petronius. Eunice, Petronius' slave, is secretly in love with her master.


French postcard by A.N. (Noyer), Paris, series of 18 Sculptochromie postcards, card no. 2. Artwork: Domenico Mastroianni, 1913. Quo vadis?: Lygia and Vinicius in the garden of Aulus. She draws a fish in the sand, a Christian symbol.


French postcard by A.N. (Noyer), Paris, series of 18 Sculptochromie postcards, card no. 4. Artwork: Domenico Mastroianni, 1913. Quo vadis?: Lygia is taken away from Aulus' house by the Pretorians. Ursus promises to help her.


French postcard by A.N. (Noyer), Paris, series of 18 Sculptochromie postcards, card no. 5. Artwork: Domenico Mastroianni, 1913. Quo vadis?: Ursus takes Lygia away from the orgy at Nero's palace.


French postcard by A.N. (Noyer), Paris, series of 18 Sculptochromie postcards, card no. 6. Artwork: Domenico Mastroianni, 1913. Quo vadis?: Vinicius and Chilo secretly attend Peter's preaching in the catacombs of Ostrianum.


French postcard by A.N. (Noyer), Paris, series of 18 Sculptochromie postcards, card no. 7. Artwork: Domenico Mastroianni, 1913. Quo vadis?: Ursus smothers Croton.


French postcard by A.N. (Noyer), Paris, series of 18 Sculptochromie postcards, card no. 8. Artwork: Domenico Mastroianni, 1913. Quo vadis?: Vinicius and Chrysothemis.


French postcard by A.N. (Noyer), Paris, series of 18 Sculptochromie postcards, card no. 9. Artwork: Domenico Mastroianni, 1913. Quo vadis?: Peter gives his benediction to Lygia and Vinicius.


French postcard by A.N. (Noyer), Paris, series of 18 Sculptochromie postcards, card no. 10. Artwork: Domenico Mastroianni, 1913. Quo vadis?: The Meeting of Two Powers (Nero and Peter).


French postcard by A.N. (Noyer), Paris, series of 18 Sculptochromie postcards, card no. 18. Artwork: Domenico Mastroianni, 1913. Quo vadis: Epilogue: Vinicius and Lygia in Sicily.

Allegories, Napoleon, saints and divine comedy

Domenico Mastroianni's working method was called 'sculpture éphémère' (ephemeral sculpture). The blog Images Musicales: "Firstly, and with astonishing speed and skill, Mastroianni modelled realistic reliefs on clay plates of about 50 cm x 70 cm. Then the plates were photographed, and these clichés were reproduced as postcards. As soon as a plate had been photographed, it was destroyed to prepare for the next scenes. Alas, not one of his plates survived." Mastroianni's sculptogravures are the plastic transposition of the lines and chromatic effects achieved by Gustave Doré through the technique of engraving. In many cases, references and specific allusions to more than one engraving can be identified. It illustrates Mastroianni's attention to, appreciation of, and sensitivity towards the figurative choices of the French master.

At least from 1909 onward, the Parisian editor Armand Noyer (A.N.) edited these postcards. In the early 1910s, just before the First World War, Mastroianni was most active, coinciding with the peak in early French and Italian cinema. At the time, there were various French film adaptations of the rise and fall of Napoleon, entitled L'épopée napoléonienne / Napoleon Bonaparte (Lucien Nonguet, 1903), Napoléon (Pathé, director unknown, 1909), and Napoléon (Louis Feuillade, 1912). Mastroianni created his ephemeral sculpture version series 'Vie de Napoléon', released on postcards in 1913.

Biblical films were also extremely popular in early cinema, in particular in France. There were multiple versions of the life of Christ by Pathé Frères as well as competing versions by companies like Gaumont. So, Mastroianni's 1911 series on The Life of Christ was no surprise. Despite the division of Church and State in France in 1905, Catholicism was an important presence in France and Europe at large in the early 1910s in Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium, etc. The French Maison de la Bonne Presse released many lantern slide series, postcards and films in the 1900s and 1910s. In addition to the New Testament, Mastroianni also made a series on the Old Testament, as well as a series on various Catholic saints. In addition to these series on well-known celebrities, saints and famous literature, Domenico Mastroianni also made countless fantasy cards, like the series 'Allégorie' (e.g. in 1911 and 1913). Often these cards were Christmas, New Year's and Easter cards, using both bucolic settings and modernity like aeroplanes.

The changing cultural climate in France forced him to return to Italy, and in 1913, he settled in Castello di Ladislao di Arpino. There, he opened a studio where he continued to work, facing difficulties due to the outbreak of the First World War. Mastroianni used his working method for propagandistic postcards in Italy. Due to the 1915 earthquake, Domenico returned to Rome. In Rome, he opened a studio at 51 Via Margutta, which would later pass to his son Alberto. In the 1920s, he did an ephemeral sculpture series for a postcard series about Dante Alighieri's 'La divina commedia' (The Divine Comedy, with 18 postcards for Hell, 14 for Purgatory and 10 for Paradise), which was released by the Milanese editor Alberto Traldi. From 1923 to 1926, he took in his nephew Umberto, a student on the evening courses at the Accademia di San Marcello, and became his teacher. Umberto later revealed that he had ‘breathed in the serene classicism and splendid solemnity of its art treasures’.

His commissions for the Quirinale Palace earned him the title of Knight of the Crown from King Victor Emmanuel III. In 1931, Domenico Mastroianni stopped making his ephemeral sculptures. He was one of the founding members of the CASA (Ceramica Artistica Società Aquesiana) ceramics factory in Acquapendente. In 1958, he created the sculptural groups for A. Manzoni’s 'The Betrothed' for the Casa degli Studi Manzoniani in Milan. Mastroianni passed away in 1961. He was 86.


French postcard by A.N. (Armand Noyer), Paris, no. ?14. Artwork: Sculptochromie by Domenico Mastroianni. New Year's card for the year 1909.


French postcard by A.N. (Armand Noyer), Paris, no. 136, 1911. Artwork: Sculptobromure by Domenico Mastroianni. Allégorie: Source of Love. The card also exists as a New Year's card.


French postcard by A.N. (Armand Noyer), Paris, no. 156, 1911. Artwork: Sculptogravure by Domenico Mastroianni. Caption: Happy New Year. The New Bird.


French postcard by A.N. (Armand Noyer), Paris, no. 64, 1911. Artwork: Sculptochromie by Domenico Mastroianni. Vie de Christ (The Life of Christ): Christ meets his Mother.


French postcard by A.N. (Armand Noyer), Paris, no. 16, 1913. Artwork: Sculptobromure by Domenico Mastroianni. Life of Napoleon (Vie de Napoléon): Napoleon, Friedland, 14 June 1807.


French postcard by A.N. (Armand Noyer), Paris, no. 258, 1913. Artwork: Sculptobromure by Domenico Mastroianni. Allégorie: Happy New Year. Everything Passes.


French postcard by A.N. (Armand Noyer), Paris, no. 28, 1916. Artwork: Sculptobromure by Domenico Mastroianni. Vieux Testament (Old Testament): The Golden Calf. Moses destroyed the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, 1925. Artwork: Domenico Mastroianni. La Divina Commedia (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso): Inferno, Canto III. Dante and Virgil at the Styx.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, 1925. Artwork: Domenico Mastroianni. La Divina Commedia (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso): Purgatorio, Canto VII. Dante and Virgil at the Valley of the Princes.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, 1925. Artwork: Domenico Mastroianni. La Divina Commedia (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso): Paradiso, Canto XXVI. Dante and Beatrice in Heaven, where he is questioned by the great Saints of the Church, St. Peter, St. James and St. John.


French postcard by A.N. (Armand Noyer), Paris, no. 132. Artwork: Sculptobromure by Domenico Mastroianni. Caption: Merry Christmas.

Sources: Images musicales, Wikipedia (Italian and German) and the information on the postcards.