Painted wall fragment with a face

Said to be associated with the Abbey of Thelema, Cefalù, with a letter from Kenneth Anger

A painted gesso fragment said to be associated with the Abbey of Thelema at Cefalù, the house occupied by Aleister Crowley from 1920 until his expulsion from Italy in 1923. It preserves part of a face: dark eyes, red lips, red marks across the cheeks and brow, and bands of red and blue above. The edges are broken and irregular. After 1923 the Abbey’s murals were whitewashed. In 1955 Kenneth Anger uncovered and filmed surviving decoration. This fragment is accompanied by a personal letter from Anger to a former owner concerning the piece. It is not identified with any picture titled by Crowley. The association rests on that letter.

By repute, the Abbey of Thelema, Cefalù, Sicily. Private collection, accompanied by a personal letter from Kenneth Anger to the then owner concerning the fragment; thence to the present owner.

Surviving painted fragments from the Abbey of Thelema are exceptionally uncommon. The Yorke Collection finding aids record photographs of paintings in the Chambre des Cauchemars (NS74, p. 220) and further photographs of paintings at Cefalù (pp. 221–222), but do not identify this fragment. Since December 1990 the villa has been under a Sicilian protection order, so painted plaster still on the walls cannot lawfully be removed For the villa and its protection, see Villa Santa Barbara, Abbazia di Thelema, FAI.