Amalia Alliata di Villafranca (1881-1914) was born in Palermo from an ancient Sicilian noble family and grew up in a culturally advanced context, mostly interested in fine arts. She herself was a good talent amateur painter. An unfinished self-portrait of Amalia Alliata is reproduced in Fig. la. Numerous artists were habitual guests of the Alliata house, including the famous sculptor Ettore Ximenes (1855-1926), who also portrayed the teenager Amalia (Fig. lb), and authored major monumental works in Italy, including the Bronze quadriga on Palace of Justice, Rome, and several important public monumental statues in Rome, Palermo, Sao Paulo, New York, Kiev and Buenos Aires. A small but visible thyroid swelling is visible in both portraits, due to a para-histmic nodule. In 1900, nothing was known about
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