Editing Luchino Visconti (section)

==Early life==
[[File:COA Visconti di Modrone di Milano.jpg|thumb|left|120px|[[Visconti di Modrone|Family arms]]]]

Luchino Visconti was born into a prominent noble family in [[Milan]], one of seven children of Giuseppe [[Visconti di Modrone]], Duke of Grazzano Visconti and Count of [[Lonate Pozzolo]], and his wife Carla<ref>[http://mannerofman.blogspot.com/2008/11/mm-icon-luchino-visconti.html "M/M Icon: Luchino Visconti"], ''Manner of Man Magazine'' online at mannerofman.com, 2 November 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2012</ref> (''née'' Erba, heiress to [[Carlo Erba SpA|Erba Pharmaceuticals]]). He was formally known as Count ''[[Don (honorific)|don]]'' Luchino Visconti di Modrone, and his family is a branch of the [[Visconti of Milan]] where they ruled from 1277 to 1447, initially as lords, then as dukes.

He grew up in the Milanese family seat, the ''Palazzo Visconti di Modrone'' in Via Cerva, as well as on the family estate, ''Grazzano Visconti Castle'' near [[Vigolzone]]. He was baptized and raised in the [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] church.<ref name=flatley>{{Cite news|last=Flatley|first=Guy|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/27/archives/yes-he-threw-no-tantrum.html|title=Yes, He Threw No Tantrum|date=27 June 1971|archive-url=https://archive.today/20211001033949/https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/27/archives/yes-he-threw-no-tantrum.html|archive-date=1 October 2021|url-status=live|access-date=1 October 2021}}</ref> After his parents separated in the early 1920s, his mother moved with her younger children, including him, to her own house in Milan, as well as to her summer residence, [[Villa Erba]] in [[Cernobbio]] on Lake Como. The father, as chamberlain of King [[Victor Emmanuel III of Italy]], also owned a villa in Rome that Luchino later inherited and lived in for decades.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="150">
8955 - Milano - Palazzo Visconti di Grazzano (sec. XVIII) - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto 22-Apr-2007.jpg|Palazzo Visconti di Modrone in Milan
Grazzano Visconti - panoramio - Gregorini Demetrio (1).jpg|Grazzano Visconti Castle
Villa Erba - dal lago.jpg|[[Villa Erba]] on Lake Como
</gallery>

In his early years, he was exposed to art, music and theatre: The ''Palazzo Visconti di Modrone'' in Milan, where he grew up, had its own small private theatre and the children participated in its performances. The family also had their own box in the [[La Scala]] opera house. Luchino studied cello with the Italian cellist and composer [[Lorenzo de Paolis]] (1890–1965) and met the composer [[Giacomo Puccini]], the conductor [[Arturo Toscanini]] and the writer [[Gabriele D'Annunzio]].{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} Visconti found literature by reading Proust's ''[[In Search of Lost Time]]'', later a lifelong film project that he never realized. Before he started his film career, he was passionate about training racehorses in his own stable. He was engaged to Princess Irma of [[Windisch-Graetz]], but this raised concerns with her father, Prince Hugo, and Visconti broke the engagement off in 1935.<ref>L. Schifano: ''Luchino Visconti. Fürst des Films'', biography (German translation), 1988, p. 141−151</ref>