Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione (1837 – 1899) was an Italian aristocrat, a secret agent/courtesan sent to plead the cause of Italian unity with Emperor Napoleon III, and a photographic artist whose association with French photographer Pierre-Louise Pierson from 1856 to 1895 resulted in about 700 portraits of herself (Metropolitan Museum, Réunion des Musées Nationaux), many of them extravagant, excentric, and truly fascinating. Watch her story.
