A brief memory of Doctor Isabella Marelli from her colleague and friend Piero Lotti.
She passed away on Sunday 12 May after a rare and incurable disease took its toll. Close to retirement with over thirty years of work in cultural heritage, she was well known in the province of Varese for having directed dozens of restorations: she remained particularly fond of some of these interventions, among these it often happened that she reasoned and “dreamed” about new studies around Santa Maria del Monte or how to spread the rediscovery of Magatti’s Last Supper.
Unfortunately, with her also goes the memory of many intuitions and lines of research. She said that with patience I had made her discover the historical-artistic secrets of Varese: after each inspection she willingly lingered and let herself be taken around the province to visit churches and monuments.
I met her for the first time in Brescia, at the Botticino restoration school, then during my university studies: clad in the inevitable suit and with a bright red beret. She had a strong and rigorous personality but those who knew her and shared a long professional and friendship path with her know that she was a good, affable, affectionate woman, gifted with a listening ability that put the interlocutor at ease, she was an excellent professional in her field, giving her contribution with passionate dedication and great intellectual honesty, but she knew how to accept suggestions with humility.
I knew she was suffering, struggling with the disease. Our last meeting in Brera in November last year at the conference in memory of Fabio Frezzato: she was a little tired but full of contagious vitality: “you’ll see, after retirement we will be able to write about all the restorations and discoveries made over the years years in Varese”. You didn’t succeed. Greetings, Isabella, now you can finally arrive at that beauty that you have incessantly explored with your mind and spirit.
The funeral will be tomorrow in Milan, San Marco church at 2.45 pm.
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