Delfina Rattazzi

Delfina Rattazzi emerges in the diary through work, social introductions, and a telling moment of self-presentation. Rather than supplying a sustained biography, Andy Warhol records brief encounters that show her moving between publishing and a closely observed social world—and, at lunch with Robin West, making a conspicuous exception to how she usually describes her family’s means.

Identity and Work

By January 1977, Delfina was working at Viking as a reader for Jackie O. Warhol notes this in a diary entry about lunch at Elaine’s, where Delfina was among the people he encountered. The detail places her in a professional role in publishing, though the diary does not explain her responsibilities or how she came to the job.

The Introduction to Robin West

In December 1976, Warhol went to Quo Vadis for lunch to introduce Delfina to Robin West. He had thought Catherine Guinness liked Robin after a weekend at the Wyeths, but Catherine said she did not mind and wanted to give him up to Delfina. Warhol describes Delfina as liking Robin and being aggressive, making the lunch a deliberate social introduction rather than a casual meeting.

Delfina’s manner stood out in the way she spoke about her family. Warhol recalls hearing her say for the first time that they were in the airplane-manufacturing business; he contrasts this with her usual pretense of being very poor. The diary does not resolve the discrepancy. Instead, it preserves the moment as a shift in her presentation, particularly noticeable because it occurred while she was making an impression on Robin. Warhol adds that Robin was a flier, a detail that gives the introduction a specific point of connection without establishing what followed between them.

A Brief Social Portrait

Across these entries, Delfina is shown both as a reader at Viking and as someone whose interest in Robin could be forceful. The account offers no subsequent outcome for the introduction and no extended description of her life. Its portrait is therefore episodic: work is noted matter-of-factly, while a single unusually direct boast becomes the sharpest detail in Warhol’s record of her.