Inside AWA - October 2018

October 2018

Inside ADVANCING WOMEN ARTISTS

Jane Fortune’s Legacy Back stage at Women Artists Songs for Nelli ART BY WOMEN: FROM STORAGE TO SPOTLIGHT 001 COVER.indd 1

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The Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, also known as the ‘Temple of the Italian Glories’, where many illustrious Italians are buried or commemorated.

A ceremony in memory of Jane Fortune was held here on October 9, 2018.

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Welcome October 2018

Inside

Autumn 2018

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utumn 2018 in Florence has been stage to many exciting events. Nelli's Crucifixion has been restored and installed at the San Salvi Museum after two years in Rossella Lari's

ADVANCING WOMEN ARTISTS

studio. Our much-awaited exhibition Women Artists: 1900-1950 has shone a light on 'the forgotten half' of the early twentieth century. Female journalists from all over the world are putting pen to page in support of AWA's mission.

Year One of a festival dedicated to female heritage has kept

Palazzo Vecchio welcomes Plautilla Artemisia all around Sojourn strong

PHOTO: DUART CASTLE, SWEN STROOP

Florence abuzz with a myriad of events. In the midst of it all, we commemorated the passing of our beloved founder, Jane

ART BY WOMEN: FROM STORAGE TO SPOTLIGHT

Fortune, in Santa Croce, the pantheon of Italy's greats – and Jane’s favorite church in the city that laid claim to her affections.

It is in some way apropos for Jane to have left us at the very height of her organization's achievements, a sign that her legacy must move forward — surefootedly but full speed ahead. Thank you, as always, for supporting this quest.

Linda Falcone AWA Director

Inside AWA Magazine Editors: Linda Falcone, Fiona Richards Copy editor & contributor: Margaret MacKinnon Photos: Andrea Corriga, Dario Ruffolo, Francesco Cacchiani, Sandy Swanton, Karen Morikawa, Cassie Prena, Kirsten Hills, Marco Badiani, Ottaviano Caruso, Chiara Toti, Lucia Mannini, Alexandra Korey, Linda Falcone, Karla Gowlett., Jane Adams, Leo Cardini, Rossella Lari, Serge Domingie, Simone Martini, Federica Parretti, Susan Duca.

Design: FPE Media Ltd Follow us: T: @AWA_Foundation F: Facebook.com/advancingwomenartists W: www.advancingwomenartists.org I: awa_foundation Advancing Women Artists Foundation Via dei Fossi 1 Florence, 50123

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Contents 17

Back stage and up front

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Who stole the show?

Morelli's 'breakfast' restored

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Pathway of the gods

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Heavenly voice, masterful hand

Miniatures, manuscripts and monasteries

54 Is Spain next?

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AWA's instagram

Crossing thresholds

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Into the archives

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Changing Light INSIDE AWA ¡ Autumn 2018

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A utumn 2018

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Women writers

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Art Angels

Jane's Legacy

Tribute to Jane Fortune Songs for Nelli

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Saintly sponsors

33 Restoring Levasti's Daily Life

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Stories in paint INSIDE AWA ¡ Autumn 2018

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Exhibition catalog

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The ADF Ten: Standing together Trade secrets

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Women's heritage 5

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JANE TRIBUTE

To Indiana Jane, con amore

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A tribute to Jane Fortune

(August 7, 1942 - September 23, 2018)

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ane always said it ‘happened by chance’.

In 2005, at the age of 63, she found a book about Plautilla Nelli, Florence’s first woman artist, while wandering through a Florentine antiques fair. This fateful meeting would take the Indianapolis-born philanthropist and art lover to the San Marco Museum to see Nelli’s lackluster but lovely Lamentation with Saints. She felt moved to fund its restoration. She did not know then that rediscovering and restoring art by women would soon become her life’s mission.

Nelli’s painting was Jane’s first ‘forgotten treasure’. There would be many more. In the thirteen years that followed, she held the post of cultural editor of The Florentine, Tuscany’s English-language newspaper, writing ‘Jane’s Gems’, a column spotlighting the city’s lesser-known places. In 2007, its articles formed the backbone of her first book To Florence, Con Amore: 90 Ways to Love the City. As the title suggests, it was her

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by Linda Falcone personal love letter to Florence. Jane would go on to co-author numerous Florence-centered publications on the same premise, including Art by Women in Florence: A Guide through 500 Years and Santa Croce in Pink: Untold Stories of Women and their Monuments.

The next artist with whom Jane fostered a ‘personal’ relationship was Artemisia Gentileschi who she ‘met’ in 2008, while underwriting the restoration of the artist’s David and Bathsheba, a painting that had been languishing ‘beyond repair’ in the Pitti’s attic for 363 years. The canvas was missing large patches of paint and Bathsheba’s eyes had been compromised, but Jane was convinced the masterwork deserved to be protected for posterity.

Because the in-storage Bathsheba ‘could neither see nor be seen’, she was chosen as the poster child for Jane’s budding quest to bring to light Florence ‘invisible’ women artists. In 2009, just as Artemisia’s restored painting was being prepared

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JANE TRIBUTE

for a temporary exhibition at the Pitti Palace entitled A Christmas Gift to the City of Florence, Jane founded Advancing Women Artists (AWA), a US not-for-profit organization to research, restore and exhibit works by women artists in storage in Tuscany’s churches and museums. Nearly two thousand works were waiting to be reclaimed, and Jane – by then known in Florence as ‘Indiana Jane’ – was committed to rescuing them from oblivion or decay. Bathsheba would ultimately grace the cover of her Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence, a book that became the catalyst for immediate change on the Florence art scene and, years later, in 2013, would inspire the Emmywinning PBS television special of the same name.

Since its early days, AWA’s gifts to Florence have gone far beyond holiday giving. Following Jane’s

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News of Indiana Jane’s quest has made the pages of countless newspapers around the world mantra ‘one artwork at a time’, sixty paintings and sculptures by female artists whose works span five centuries have been restored and returned to the museum spotlight in venues like the Uffizi Galleries, the Santa Croce Complex, the Accademia Gallery, the Last Supper Museum of Andrea del Sarto and the San Marco Museum to name a few.

Jane’s decades-long efforts to restore Nelli’s oeuvre laid the groundwork for the artist’s first-ever solo show at the Uffizi in 2017. Her dream to make Nelli a household name is quickly becoming reality.

News of Indiana Jane’s quest has made the pages of countless newspapers around the world including USA Today, The Guardian, Spain’s El Pais and Italy’s Corriere della Sera as well as magazines in Turkey, Germany, Mexico, and even Siberia.

As a Trustee of the Medici Archive Project in Florence, she established the Jane Fortune Research

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JANE TRIBUTE

Program on Women Artists in 2010. The dynasty’s vast archives, Jane believed, was comprised of precious documents that could offer insight on female artists who had painted at the Medici court.

She was indeed right, and the program, headed by Dr. Sheila Barker, has engendered discoveries that have virtually revolutionized scholarship, especially with regards to the life of Artemisia Gentileschi.

Jane’s work has been honored with numerous awards from her adoptive city, where she lived part-time for over 25 years with her life partner Bob Hesse. She was in the ranks of singer Andrea Boccelli and filmmaker Franco Zefferelli as recipient of the Tuscan American Award in 2013.

Zeffirelli, whose work she deeply admired, would later be featured in the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary When the World Answered: Florence, Women Artists and the 1966 Flood, based on the book that she co-authored in 2014. During filming, the maestro who has created some of the twentieth-century’s most significant films, would recognize his affinity with Indiana Jane. Taking both of her hands in his, he captured the core of her persona in three simple words: ‘Anything for Florence’. In 2015, she was awarded ‘Il Fiorino d’Oro’ - Florence’s highest honor - by Mayor Dario Nardella in a ceremony held in the Palazzo Vecchio’s Salone dei Cinquecento.

Florence was not the only beneficiary of Jane’s tireless efforts. Long before becoming ‘Indiana Jane’, she had spent a lifetime supporting museums and university programs, particularly in her hometown of Indianapolis, but also in Philadelphia, Washington and New York. For Jane, supporting the arts in the United States was very much a question of working to increase art accessibility for disabled persons. This commitment was paramount in her role as trustee or advisory council member at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC (where she founded the Florence Committee of NMWA in 2005), the Indiana University Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. At PAFA, she would found the Special Needs Program which resulted in the establishment of a Women’s Board Endowed Scholarship dedicated to persons with disabilities.

In 2007, she received the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Accessibility Award for her leadership and financial support of the museum’s accessibility program. In 2008, she was honored with the ‘Spirit

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JANE TRIBUTE

of Philanthropy Award’, jointly granted by Indiana University, Purdue University and the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis.

Recounting Jane’s countless contributions is a titanic feat and only a handful will be reported here. Jane served as Chairman of the Board of the Deafness Research Foundation in New York City and as its volunteer President/CEO. In Philadelphia, Jane co-founded ‘US Artists, an American Fine Art Show and Sale’, which benefitted the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She spearheaded notable initiatives as an honorary member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, where she endowed the Outstanding Visiting Artist Lecture Series which featured contemporary artists ranging from Judy Chicago and Audrey Flack to Betty Woodman and Maria Magdalena Compos-Pons.

In 2014, together with ‘the love of her life’ Robert Hesse, Jane was recognized as a ‘Living Legend’ by the Indiana Historical Society. Bob

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passed in 2015, but the last years of their life together were particularly dynamic. 2008 was a milestone year. They co-founded the Indianapolis City Ballet, which repeatedly brought the world’s top dancers to Indianapolis for an ‘Evening with the Stars’ and master classes with local students of dance. In 2010, purely for fun, they opened a Tuscan restaurant, Bella Fortuna North, in Leland Michigan, their tried-and-true holiday spot, where they were vintners of a wine labelled Bella Fortuna.

This year, in 2018, Bob was posthumously honored at the Chautauqua Institution where he served as president from 1977 and 1983. He is now the namesake of the Dr. Robert R. Hesse Welcome and Business Center, a perfect fit. Jane, on the other hand, received a second tribute from the Indiana Historical Society: the Art Patron’s Award.

With a lifetime of laurels to choose from, Timeless Travels editor Fiona Richards asked Jane to recount her greatest accomplishment in a 2015 interview. Her response did not surprise those who

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JANE TRIBUTE

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Until the very end, Jane remained steadfast, standing at the helm of the organizations she had so lovingly forged, her vision for change undimmed

knew her: ‘Raising two wonderful children, John Medveckis and Jennifer Medveckis Marzo, whose giving spirits, values and ethics I am very proud of.’

Jane’s most recent endeavor, A Space of their Own, was formalized as a pilot project in 2017 and is rapidly expanding. It brings together Advancing Women Artists, the Eskenazi Museum of Art and Indiana University, where she had received an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters in 2010. Its purpose is to build the largest and most comprehensive international database and website through which findings on historic women artists from the 1500s to the 1800s can be accessed.

Jane continued as a public speaker throughout 2018. In her last engagement at Saint Vincent’s Hospital Cancer Support Group, Jane told the audience: ‘My message to you is don’t give up. I am not going to let cancer take over my life and my life’s passion.’ And so it was. Cancer has claimed her body, but never - never did it crush her spirit or diminish her courage. Until the very end, Jane

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remained steadfast, standing at the helm of the organizations she had so lovingly forged, her vision for change undimmed.

Jane died on September 23, 2018 in Indianapolis.

She believed her life’s work happened by chance.

But chances are … she was chosen. Chosen to light a path we must continue to follow, as she did, one beautiful step at a time.

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JANE’S LEGACY

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Plautilla Nelli, Artemisia Gentileschi, Irene Parenti Duclos, Felice de Fauveau and Lea Colliva represent each of the five centuries of art by women spanned by AWA’s achievements.

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A Lasting Legacy

One picture is worth a thousand words... and 60 pictures speak volumes

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amentation with Saints was Jane Fortune’s first-ever restoration. Its author, Plautilla Nelli, heads a long line of women artists whose works Jane took from obscurity to the limelight. Jane’s forays into the storage vaults of Florence’s museums and churches yielded scores of canvases by women in need of restoration, and her contacts with curators and restorers led to discoveries of evermore recent artworks in need of attention.

Over the past twelve years, more than 60 artworks by women have benefitted from AWA’s ministrations –

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from full restorations to timely interventions to prevent deterioration. Works on canvas, board and paper, as well as sculptures in various media, have been revived and safeguarded for future generations.

They may not be household names (yet!), but Plautilla Nelli, Artemisia Gentileschi, Irene Parenti Duclos, Felice de Fauveau and Lea Colliva represent each of the five centuries of art by women spanned by AWA’s achievements. All taking their place in history thanks to Jane’s vision, determination and inspiration.

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JANE’S LEGACY

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Jane’s forays into the storage vaults of Florence’s museums and churches yielded scores of canvases by women in need of restoration

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Back-stage and up front An exhibition is the result of numerous hopes and the product of many working hands. Celebrate the opening with ‘before and after’ snaps of the show – from set-up to sight-to-see.

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he wants to paint like a man and, sometimes, she succeeds,” reads a 1929 review of Leonetta Pieraccini Cecchi’s work by an art critic called Tinti.

Now, nearly ninety years later, we at AWA say: “She wanted to paint like a woman and, indeed, she always succeeds.” Our exhibition, Women Artists. Florence 19001950, co-sponsored by the Fondazione CR Firenze, focuses on Cecchi’s paintings, as well as those by artist Fillide Levasti, her lifelong friend.

This gem-like exhibition, curated by Lucia Mannini and Chiara Toti, will run until November 18, 2018 at our partner’s Spazio Mostre, just a few minutes’ walk from the Duomo in central Florence.

The show enjoys the patronage of the US Consulate in Florence.

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NEW EXHIBITION

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Every Thursday for the month of October AWA volunteers are leading tours of the show to raise awareness of this little-known century, and the network of women who flanked Cecchi and Levasti in their creative journeys

Every Thursday for the month of October AWA volunteers are leading tours of the show to raise awareness of this little-known century, and the network of women who flanked Cecchi and Levasti in their creative journeys. “Now that you have a room of your own and the children have grown, will you be painting some?”

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NEW EXHIBITION

Far left: “Say cheese”: Conservator Rossella Lari and Fondazione CR Firenze’s Paola Petrosino with curators Lucia Mannini and Chiara Toti.

wrote Levasti to Cecchi in 1920. “If so, now is the time for the lovely part to begin!”

We believe the show embodies the joyous moments of creative freedom that Levasti hoped for in her letter. A bridge across time, this exhibition is an extension of ‘the room’ that Cecchi finally had to herself.

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Who stole the show?

The painters who authored our newly restored“ works get ‘top billing’ but who are the other fascinating twentieth-century women whose paintings and sculptures are featured in the exhibition Women Artists. Florence 1900-1950?

ELISABETH CHAPLIN (1890 – 1982) French by birth, Chaplin spent much of her life in Florence, residing in the hills of Fiesole at Villa Treppiede where she painted, capturing members of her family on canvas; she used flagrant colors and a brand of light that imbued her figures with symbolist undertones recalling the post-impressionist culture that had been long cultivated in Florence by the most experienced artists and collectors. After a long post-war sojourn in Rome, Chaplin would divide her time between France and Florence, favoring decorative themes and monumental allegories characterized by fresco-like color and natural luminescence.

EVELYN SCARAMPI (1890 – 1975) Born in England, Scarampi would settle in Florence in 1907, where she would cultivate a friendship with Giovanni Costetti.

One of the few women sculptors of her time, Scarampi would set up her studio at the ‘Palazzo dei Pittori’ in viale Milton, where Costetti and his wife Mai Sewell also had their atelier.

Sewell was a fellow sculptor and ceramist whose oeuvre has since been virtually lost. Fillide Levasti was another of Scarampi’s

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dear friends and companions. Correspondence stored at the Marucelliana Library’s Levasti Archive confirms this fact, as does the portrait tribute that the sculptor dedicated to Fillide.

Scarampi’s essential works in terracotta, bronze, marble or stone have an archaic sort of flair, even when she depicts more worldly subjects, as with Girl with a hat.

MARISA MORI (1900 – 1985) Born in Florence at the turn of the century, Mori forged her identity as an early twentieth-century artist, working in myriad fields such as painting, fashion, theater, cuisine, photography and cinema. Her debut in Turin in the 1920s was marked by her enrollment in Felice Casorati’s school, where she developed an aptitude for rigorous compositional study. Light and color were at the center of her painterly research, especially in Florence in 1931 when she joined the ranks of Futurism, as a result of her urgent quest for new expressive media. This fruitful creative season is epitomized by The jazz player and The physical exhilaration of maternity. In the latter, the artist metabolized the adventure of flying, which Marinetti had encouraged her to experience.

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NEW EXHIBITION

ELENA SALVANESCHI (1900 – 1961) The training she received at Felice Casorati’s school in Turin during the 1920s would leave its mark on her entire body of works, and the master’s influence is particularly evident in her portraits whose sitters carefully occupy each canvas, touched by the painter’s very personal emotion-driven brush. The bulk of Salvaneschi’s portraits depict women. In 1933, she moved from Turin to Florence, as did Marisa Mori whom she met again among the ranks of the Florentine Lyceum, where Salvaneschi held a significant organizational role during its prosperous exhibition season in the 1930s.

FLAVIA ARLOTTA (1913 – 2010) After moving to Florence in 1930, Arlotta met painter Giovanni Colacicchi who became her drawing instructor for an admissions exam at the Accademia di Belle Arti. The pair fell in love and an artistic fellowship ensued, thanks to which Arlotta frequented Giovanni’s artist friends like Onofrio Martinelli. Arlotta derived a “classic” sense of her own from this exchange, as seen in Poppies, in which the sobriety of the composition contrasts with freshness of the pictorial technique, or in Still life with a box of dates, where her knowledge of drawing both channels and mitigates her colorist vein.

ADRIANA PINCHERLE (1905 – 1996) Sister to novelist Alberto Moravia, she had pre-existing ties to Tuscany and Florence, where she settled for good in 1940 after marrying Onofrio Martinelli. Pincherle would share her life and her art with him, in fact, the couple was known for using the very same easel. She made full use of her coloristic gifts – already revealed during her Roman years – by authoring successful Cubist and Fauves works, recognizable in her sliding perspective and skewed scenes with wobbly tables, and in the flatness with which she applied her colors inside dark outlines, forming a guilloche pattern.

These short descriptions on each featured artist appeared on exhibition signage, prepared by co-curators Chiara Toti and Lucia Mannini.

Elisabeth Chaplin’s Girl with a cloak (top right) and Elena Salvaneschi’s Figure in white and Teacher with a red pen.

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S tories of women in paint & on page

A series of lectures and guided visits spotlight the literary and intellectual atmosphere that influenced the artists in the exhibition Women Artists. Florence 1900-1950. Associazione Culturale Il Palmerino, one of the project’s founding partners, plays host at its villa headquarters until November 18. For complete program details, visit AWA’s events section at: www.advancingwomenartists.org

ANNA MARIA BARTOLINI. ART AND MEMORY

A TOUR OF PALAZZO DEI PITTORI

Anna Maria Bartolini (1934-2013) was a Florentine artist. Born one generation after the artists on show, Bartolini has an affinity with her predecessors that is rooted in her fondness for painting literature-based themes. Her series, inspired by M. Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarite, is exhibited in celebration of the event, which includes a guided visit of Villa Il Palermino and its gardens, once residence of writer Vernon Lee (1856-1935) and painter Lola Costa (1903-2004). In collaboration with the Archivio per la Memoria e la Scrittura delle Donne “Alessandra Contini Bonacossi”. LECTURERS INCLUDE Luisella Bernardini, Rosalia Manno Tolu and Ernestina Pellegrini.

Since its construction in the second half of the nineteenth century, Palazzo Swertschkoff has been known as ‘The Painters’ Palace’. Located on viale Milton, which runs along the Mugnone creek, it has always hosted ateliers belonging to artists from Italy and abroad, including painter Fillide Levasti. This tour offers a fascinating glimpse of a palazzo that continues its art-inspired mission in modern times. THIS VISIT IS LED BY Valentino Moradei and Chiara Toti.

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LECTURES

Left: Leonetta Cecchi's Portrait of Sibilla Almerano and Adriana Pincherle's Coral necklace.

Right, from top to bottom: Palazzo dei Pittori, Elisabeth Chaplin's Nennette reading and Flavia Arlotta's Still life with a box of dates

FROM A TO B: SIBILLA ALERAMO AND ANNA BANTI. WOMEN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY A focus on two exponents of the autobiographical form in literature: Sibilla Aleramo (Una donna, 1906) and Anna Banti. The latter’s Artemisia– written in Florence and published in 1953– explores the challenges of being a woman artist. Women’s autobiographical writings from the twentieth century have not yet received the attention they deserve, much like artworks produced by women in the same period. LECTURER Ursula Fanning.

BEHIND THE MIRROR. LEONETTA PIERACCINI CECCHI, THE WRITER Leonetta Pieraccini Cecchi was both painter and writer. Her books Visti da vicino (1952), Vecchie agendine (1960) and Agendina di guerra (1964) were drawn from her many diaries, in which she recounted the vicissitudes of daily life in words and pictures. Not only did she capture the essence of the domestic sphere, she also explored the multi-faceted atmosphere characterizing the interwar period, populated by the notable artists and literati she frequented in both Florence and Rome. A special guest at the event: the artist’s granddaughter Nanà Cecchi D’Amico, WITH SCHOLAR Margherita Ghilardi.

ILLUSTRATORS IN FLORENCE. “JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF POETRY, HUMOR AND UNEXPECTED FAIRYTALE FLAIR” This lecture shines a spotlight on little-known female artists from the interwar period who worked chiefly in publishing and illustration, fields that were considered: “One of the few territories women were allowed to explore, because it was modest and not ostentatious.” A series of their illustrations will be on show in Il Palmerino’s exhibition room. LECTURER Lucia Mannini.

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Exhibition catalog: Women artists. Florence 1900-1950 AWA’s newest publication is the exhibition catalog for Women artists. Florence 1900-1950, curated by Lucia Mannini and Chiara Toti and published by Florence-based Polistampa (September 2018). In her foreword, AWA Founder Jane Fortune captured the essence of a multi-faceted project.

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y illustrious Lordship…”

Whenever art by ‘invisible’ female artists is delivered to the exhibition spotlight, it represents an invitation and it initiates a dialog. Women Artists.

Florence 1900 to 1950 is no exception. In this instance, the invitation is to see and to study the hidden face of twentieth-century Italy. Yet, the conversation we hope this project will engender began far earlier. In 1649 Artemisia Gentileschi penned a letter to Sicilian nobleman Don Antonio Ruffio with the statement that started it all: “My illustrious Lordship, I will show you what a woman can do.”

Happily, in my work with AWA over the past 12

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years, Artemisia’s mission has become our own.

In this time, I have learned that two principal undertakings make this feat possible. The first is restoration. No other tool is more powerful when it comes to reclaiming the original dignity of an artwork, both in structure and in essence. Eight paintings by women artists from the Gabinetto G. P. Vieusseux and the Uffizi’s Gallery of Modern Art benefitted from conservation treatment on this occasion. The second is the creation of partnerships. Only when the effort to reclaim art by women pervades every cultural tier - from the world-renowned museum and the highly-

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NEW PUBLICATION

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May the pursuit of mastery be coupled with the celebration of the familiar, for in both the majestic and the quotidian there is beauty to be had.

esteemed institution, to the lovingly-maintained archives and even individual family homes - will we deeply value and understand the contributions of historic women artists. For this very reason, I sincerely thank the formidable players that have made this project possible.

Twentieth-century women began documenting their lives with more frequency and freedom than those of previous eras, and this exhibition-based project, the third in a series celebrating the work of modern women artists in Florence, began as the brainchild of Associazione Culturale Il Palmerino whose founders envisioned it as a way of capturing ‘living memory’. The premise was to document the lives of female artists while those who knew them were still able to recount their cherished firsthand stories. To this end, this edition’s in-town show is flanked by Il Palmerino’s lecture series ‘Stories by Women in Paint and on Page’, and the Marucelliana Library’s archive-inspired exhibition centered around artist Fillide Levasti.

The twentieth century does not yet get ‘top billing’ in the city where Renaissance scholars abound, but it is fitting to host these important events in Florence, for the city is still a Medici daughter, and the dynasty did much to dignify and popularize the genres so prevalent in our keynote exhibition at the Fondazione CR Firenze:

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portraiture and still-life. By showcasing the themes most commonly depicted by women throughout the ages, this show is a celebration of all that is familiar, of all that is dear, of all that is quietly within reach.

There is much debate as to whether all-women shows continue to have a place in the art world today. By all means, let’s debate it! And as we do, let us talk about why that discussion somehow still needs to take place. There is one principle on which everyone can agree: we must move forward in our efforts to bring the art of women from storage into the public gaze, shining a light on the trials and the whimsy of the artists that touch our hearts as well as our minds. Will these art works always reveal mastery? No. What they will reveal is the need to transform and record the human experience, for it is through this yearning that we will reach the end and the beginning of our own creative quest. It is not without a wink to Artemisia, that I say it: May the pursuit of mastery be coupled with the celebration of the familiar, for in both the majestic and the quotidian there is beauty to be had.

Jane Fortune, LHD AWA Founder and Chair

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“WOMEN IN LIFE, AND IN ART”

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lorence became fertile ground in which to celebrate the culture of modern and historic women, as the city geared up for events both in and out of town, during September’s Women’s Heritage Festival, (L’eredità delle donne) launched in Palazzo Vecchio’s Sala delle Armi on September 20. Besides AWA-inspired events like guided visits to see the restoration of Nelli’s Crucifixion in its final stages and tours at Santa Croce ‘in pink’, here are just three among the many festival highlights.

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Many of our museum friends rolled out the red carpet for female heritage: Santa Maria Novella exhibited Giovanna Garzoni’s stunning silk altar hanging (1647) featuring her signature blooms and God the Father in Flight; the Bargello hosted tours entitled Women in Life and Art which zeroed in on the role of women in Medieval and Renaissance times, based on the hand-crafted objects that were often included in their dowries.

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WOMEN’S HERITAGE

Left: The Bargello Museum, Garzoni’s altar hanging, Villa La Quiete.

Above: Press conference for the Women’s Heritage Festival at Palazzo Vecchio’s Sala delle Armi

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La Quiete, the usually-closed villa that was home to Grand Duchesses Cristina de Lorraine, Vittoria della Rovere and Anna Maria Luisa (the festival’s godmother) was abuzz with visitors enthralled by the tastes of the Medici women.

The events – 130 in all – are far too numerous to list but included a line-up of literati, actors, musicians, athletes, politicians, chefs, scientists and entrepreneurs.

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GABINETTO VIEUSSEUX

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Into the Archives Paintings restored for Florence’s Gabinetto Vieusseux

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EONETTA PIERACCINI CECCHI (1882 – 1977)

A native of Poggibonsi, Leonetta Pieraccini Cecchi trained with Macchiaioli artist Giovanni Fattori at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. Her friend Fillide Giorgi was also enrolled there at the same time, and Leonetta would often spend time at the Giorgi home. Both women were initially influenced by the works of painter Giovanni Costetti. Leonetta’s relationship with Emilio Cecchi was also pivotal, and she would marry the art critic in 1911. Once the couple had moved to Rome, she would continue back-and-forth journeys to Florence and Tuscany. As she tended to her growing family over the course of the 1920s, her painting embraced the canons of “modern naturalism” (C. Carrà, 1928) which emphasized her narrative skills as well as her fondness for daily-life scenes in which her husband and children play protagonist, along with the vast entourage of artists and literati she frequented.

Five out of six of Cecchi’s portraits on show during Women Artists. Florence 1900-1950 were restored by conservators Angela Gavazzi and Rossella Lari for the CR Firenze exhibition. Since 1982, these works have formed part of the Cecchi Archive hosted at the Gabinetto Vieusseux’s “Archivio contemporaneo”. A room at the Palazzo Corsini Suarez hosts the archival documents of Emilio and Leonetta, in addition to her paintings and his library, evoking the owners’ presence. Upon returning ‘home’, the paintings will be on display in the Vieusseux’s many reading rooms.

The tone of Leonetta’s archival documents denote her keenness for capturing the quotidian. Cesare Pascarella’s rough sketch-like visage was the product of a single sitting and is a throwback to her portrait series depicting the literati who frequented the Cecchi home. Whether in painting or on the page, the artistwriter depicts her ‘sitters’ with formidable descriptive acumen.

Left: Restorers Angela Gavazzi and Rossella Lari at work.

Above and right: One of Cecchi’s family portraits and a sketch of Cesare Pascarella.

Texts adapted from museum signage by Lucia Mannini and Chiara Toti, for Women Artists. Florence. 19001950.

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From the Uffizi Galleries to the Atelier

Vittoria Morelli’s “psychological” breakfast scene restored

Interior with Figures by Vittoria Morelli

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he colors of an invisible artist shine through.

Vittoria Morelli’s Interior with Figures from the Pitti’s Gallery of Modern Art (now part of the Uffizi Galleries) was restored in September 2018. Morelli died at an early age, and historical references to her life and works are scant. Active in Florence in the 1910s and 1920s, she was a beloved friend to fellow artist Fillide Levasti. Creator of fashion plates for

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Maria Monaci Gallenga, she was also an illustrator for children’s books and for the Giornalino della Domenica. She gained acclaim for her largescale figurative painting and garnered success at significant international exhibitions of her day.

Morelli’s breakfast scene exemplifies her solid painterly technique characterized by well-executed ‘grandiose gestures’ that give narrative strength to her scenes of everyday life.

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RESTORATION REVIEW

Lower right: Restorer Chiara Mignani in her studio with Vittoria Morelli’s painting

The core of the question Restorers understand the soul of the artist. That’s what we’ve learned through our conservation projects at AWA. No one can get to the heart of a painting as a restorer can, and truly understand its creator. This is why we asked conservator Sandra Pucci what she could tell us about Vittoria Morelli’s Interior with Figures. Here are her views: “This painting is introspective; she paid a lot of attention to the message she is trying to give. It is a slice-oflife piece depicting a precise world. It represents a specific fashion, specific years. Everything about it, the jewelry, the embroidery on the table cloth… the clothes. The way they are posing and the colors she uses. The maid, for example, occupies a large part of the scene – 50 percent of the scene even. She’s like a pillar of the painting. It’s a message of social organization. It’s a painting by a woman who has the capacity for analysis. It’s a closed, introspective piece.”

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RESTORATION REVIEW

”

In Interior with Figures, her fondness for the lexicon of daily life is supported by a solid, wellexecuted painterly technique that provides an affectionate snapshot radiating warmth and capturing traditional customs.

What do you need to know about Vittoria Morelli?

Exhibition co-curator Lucia Mannini provides a clue: “A native Florentine, Vittoria Morelli (1892 – 1931) moved to Rome as a child. A painter and illustrator for children’s books and advertising, Morelli maintained strong ties with her native city and she came bursting into fellow-painter Fillide Levasti’s life with all the colorful verve that typified members of the Giornalino della Domenica.

Morelli felt an affinity with Fillide’s good-natured disposition. Portraits of Morelli, painted during her visits to “viale Miltonne”, bear witness to their friendship, as do the hundreds of letters written from 1918 to 1931, in which Morelli keeps Levasti up to date on her life and the evolution of Roman exhibitions. In Interior with Figures, her fondness for the lexicon of daily life is supported by a solid, well-executed painterly technique that provides an affectionate snapshot radiating warmth and capturing traditional customs.”

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E veryday excitement

AWA spoke to Florence conservators Sandra Pucci and Chiara Mignani about their experience of restoring Fillide Levasti’s Daily Life.

Their answers reveal a world unknown.

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ow is restoring modern art different from working on Renaissance canvases?

CM: “I like working on modern art much more than I do on pieces from other centuries. In fact, one day, I’d like to begin working with the conservation of contemporary art. Working with modern art stimulates you to find new restoration solutions. When treating historical paintings, there are already consolidated methods and a preestablished way of doing things. But new materials are far more reactive to solvents and acetone – they

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are more sensitive and there is no time-trusted way to proceed. So, it’s rather exciting to be part of a pioneering field in this sense.”

What challenges did you face while restoring Fillide Levasti’s Daily Life?

CM: This painting had to be treated for paint detachment and color loss, so we secured the color onto the canvas and carried out stucco-work. It’s an oil-on-cardboard painting and cardboard tends to lose its shape over time… that is a problem to

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RESTORATION REVIEW

”

...one day, I’d like to begin working with the conservation of contemporary art.

Working with modern art stimulates you to find new restoration solutions.

look out for especially on the edges. To correct deformation, we created a climatic chamber to expose it to humidity. We then dried it under a press, before extending it onto the stretcher.

This helped it to regain its proper form. A surface cleaning was carried out with latex sponges similar to those used to remove make-up. In this case, there was no need for old varnish to be removed.”

What have you learned about Fillide Levasti through your restoration of her paintings?

SP: “We have developed a beautiful relationship with the painter over the course of this project.

Working on a painting by a woman is a unique experience. It makes you think. I am not able to determine whether a painting was done by a woman or not. It’s too difficult to tell. Levasti,

though, is extremely technical. She executes her paintings carefully and is exceptionally descriptive, as if she was telling a children’s story.”

Is it common for female conservators in Florence to restore art by women?

SP: “I’ve had some other opportunities to work on art by women because I often work with the Gallery of Modern Art (Pitti), but it doesn’t happen that much. I believe it is because these works are not well-known and not as many works by female artists are part of the museum circuit.”

Upper right: Chiara Mignani restores Daily Life

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RESTORATION REVIEW

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hether in the studio or displayed for public viewing, many female art lovers express wonder at seeing Levasti's painting, by saying, "Oh, it looks like a dollhouse I had as a child!"

"Levasti's urban views are populated by figures who wander amidst the cube-like geometry of her buildings and archaic landscapes. Her curious gaze explored teeming everyday activities, giving life to what has become a zestful and enchanting repertoire of a lost Florence, once home to

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carnival rides and washerwomen, cartwrights and lamplighters, housewives hanging laundry, nursemaids, travelling photographers and women sewing on their terraces. Her world straddles reality and fairytale, and its limpid and wellmeasured color makes her oeuvre an extraordinary episode within the painterly route trodden by most artists who gravitated toward the Florence art scene."

Lucia Mannini

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Trade Secrets and the Artist’s Hand A visit to the restoration studio reveals Levasti’s Houses in Demolition

“Quintessential” Demolition Restored in 2018 for the exhibition Women Artists.

Florence 1900-1950, Fillide Levasti’s Houses in Demolition is ordinarily in storage at the Uffizi Galleries at Pitti’s Modern Art Gallery. The exhibition’s co-curators Chiara Toti and Lucia Mannini describe the artist’s style of the period: “Throughout the 1920s, artist Fillide Levasti would chiefly paint painstakingly researched still-life works reminiscent of German and French art.

By the 1930s, her painting became increasingly characterized by her quest for purity with spurred

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the artist to turn her gaze to the every-day activities and trades typical of the viale Milton neighborhood, home to Palazzo dei Pittori, where her studio was located. This ultimately resulted in whimsical views of a Florence suspended in time, which would become the quintessential trademark of her oeuvre by the end of the second World War.”

Spit and polish?

A unique restoration method will ‘shock’ those not in the know. Have you ever heard the English expression, “Spit and polish ‘til it shines”? In a

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RESTORATION REVIEW

Restorer Sandra Pucci works on Fillide Levasti’s Houses in Demolition

recent interview with Florence-based restorer Sandra Pucci, AWA learned that – in bygone times – artisans took the phrase literally. Fillide Levasti’s newly restored painting was still in the restoration studio in the Santo Spirito neighborhood when Sandra revealed the ‘technique’ used on the twentieth-century painter’s Pitti painting: “On Houses in Demolition we did a surface cleaning, using artificial saliva which is essentially a chemical reproduction of the enzymes in our own salvia, which was used on occasion in the past,” Pucci explained. “It allows us to remove surface dirt without damaging the varnish.”

‘The bustle of life’ fresco-style In the restoration studio we find out what an artist was really like. “I admire how Levasti applies her

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impasto in Houses in Demolition,” says conservator Sandra Pucci, when asked what she had learned about the artist while restoring the Pitti work.

“I do find the sky color quite murky, in terms of chromatic choice, but it is certainly authored by an expert hand. For many centuries, it was the style to use small brushes to produce carefully constructed paintings. Houses in Demolition is almost reminiscent of a fresco,” Pucci concludes.

In the exhibition catalog Women Artists.

Florence 1900-1950, art historian Chiara Toti describes the painter’s response to the viale Milton neighborhood “…where the Levastis both lived and had their studio. She captures the authenticity of daily life, portraying women’s chores on terraces and in courtyards or the bustle of life in the neighborhood’s squares.”

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ADF TEN

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THE ADF TEN

Standing together for Judas The brilliant idea to invite sponsors to Adopt an Apostle in Plautilla Nelli’s Last Supper in order to fund its restoration had only one snag - who would want to adopt Judas?

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Upper left and right: Mark Smith, Beverley McLachlin Lower left and right: Monica Martin with Wayne McArdle, Sarah Dunant

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he Art Defense Fund for Judas (ADF) was created to bring together ten sponsors to ensure that the least popular Apostle was not left ‘homeless’. Here’s who has made the ADF a success: By chance, former Chief Justice of Canada, Beverley McLachlin had attended a revival of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar not long before she learned about the ADF. She had been struck by the ambivalence of the character of Judas.

When Christ urges him to ‘hurry - they are waiting’, Judas replies, ‘you want me to do it! What if I just stayed here and ruined your ambition?’ ‘I started to look at Judas in a new light,’ says Beverley. ‘I saw him as a more nuanced character and less as a pantomime villain.’

Similarly, British historian and novelist Sarah Dunant was instinctively drawn to the dramatic tension of the story of Christ’s betrayal and the crucial role that Judas played in setting in motion the events that led not only to the crucifixion - but also to the salvation of humanity through the resurrection.

For English barrister Nicholas Davidson, the ADF represented a perfect application of the ‘Cab Rank’ Rule - according to which barristers, like cab drivers, are obliged to take the next customer in the queue. Which defense lawyer has not, at some time, taken on a disreputable client or a shaky case - all in support of the greater cause of justice?

The ADF drew support from other legally-trained sponsors, namely, Ingrid Furtado, a South African lawyer now living in London, and Susan Mazza a some-time resident of Florence, who recently retired from legal practice in California.

Support for Judas also came from long-standing friends of AWA such as travel specialist and author Mark Gordon Smith and IA Council

member Elizabeth Negrey. Mark was a generous supporter of the FirstLast Crowdfunding Campaign, riding in as a white knight at the eleventh hour with a significant contribution to ensure that the campaign met its target. Elizabeth has been an advocate for many AWA projects and a strong supporter of AWA’s mission. The ADF was just one more opportunity for them to show their unwavering commitment.

Brenda Schneider and her daughter Jennifer Schneider are recent converts to the AWA cause but are no less fervent for that. While attending a charity event in Italy in August, Brenda and Jennifer were introduced to AWA, Nelli’s Last Supper and the ADF by Jane Adams, AWA’s Partner Relations Manager. They both jumped at the chance to support Nelli’s historic painting. That moment of discovering the existence of so many invisible women artists - and learning that there is an organisation devoted to giving them a voice - is a familiar one to all of us at AWA. Among the reasons Canadian banker, Michael Furtado chose to sign on to the ADF was the thought of being able to take his two young daughters to view the finished painting in the Museum of Santa Maria Novella. At the other end of the age spectrum, the ADF’s oldest member at 94, Monica Martin, another Canadian, recalled a trip to Venice some fifty years ago, touring the churches filled with paintings by Titian, Tintoretto, Bellini . ‘All men!’ she said. ‘Not one woman.’ She was delighted to be able to help in bringing Nelli’s Last Supper out of the storage vaults to be restored and exhibited in its rightful place beside other great Renaissance works.

To all of our generous ADF members: Grazie di cuore.

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ADF TEN

Clockwise from top left: Nicholas Davidson, Susan Mazza and Arnie LaGuardia, Jennifer and Brenda Schneider with the Mayor of San Gimignano, Michael and Ingrid Furtado, Elizabeth Negrey

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30/09/2018 20:47

A GALLERY OF SAINTLY ADOPTERS The Adopt an Apostle Campaign has succeeded in its mission to find ‘homes’ for all twelve Apostles in Plautilla Nelli’s Last Supper!

Keep your eye on the Top Sponsors page of the AWA website to read upcoming features on all of our saintly sponsors.

Alice Vogler Saint James the Elder

Nancy and Dave Galliher Saint James the Younger

Cay Fortune Saint John

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Bill Fortune & Joe Blakley Saint Peter

Donna Malin Jesus Christ

Pam Fortune Saint Phillip

Dave and Betty Schneider Saint Thomas

Kari Haataja, Frank McArdle, Margaret MacKinnon, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, Wayne McArdle & Katherine Haataja. (Kari & Katherine adopted Saint Simon; Margaret & Wayne adopted Saint Judas Thaddeus in honor of C.J. McLachlin.)

Nancy and Bill Hunt) Saint Bartholomew

Deborah and Ted Lily Saint Andrew

Jane Fortune Saint Matthew (the Saint under the signature)

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Bejeweled wings AWA’s revamped Art Angel program takes flight

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rt lovers around the world are looking to become more involved in AWA’s mission and to join the Foundation’s growing community. That’s why AWA Board and IA Council members decided to redesign the Art Angel Program to create a range of opportunities for annual giving.

The program brings together Florentines and people from all over the world who wish to build a network and pledge their annual support.

Art angels can take flight with silver, gold, ruby, emerald and diamond wings! Whether given as a gift to someone special or made as a personal tribute to art by women, Art Angel pledges help us promote and protect hidden works by women artists that deserve recognition.

At each level of giving, AWA’s Art Angels receive special perks that inspire donors to cultivate their love for Florence and its ‘invisible’ art.

Bronze Art Angel – $100 annual gift Silver Art Angel – $250 annual gift Gold Art Angel – $500 annual gift Ruby Art Angel – $1,000 annual gift Emerald Art Angel – $2,500 annual gift Diamond Art Angel – $5,000 annual gift

Meet our first 'Emerald' Angel: Victoria Slichter

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ictoria is a portraitist with an eye for color and a soft spot for interesting faces. Victoria values our restorations with a painterly eye, focussing on the techniques and preparatory methods her female colleagues have employed throughout the ages.

She has lived in California for many years, enjoying the sunny skies and stunning vistas of Carmel and Monterrey. Her background in philanthropy also extends to other arts, especially music; Victoria is

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a supporter of the Carmel Bach Festival and is a member and fundraiser for Opera San Jose.

Additionally, she has dedicated her time to Family Service organizations, especially visiting the elderly.

Recently, after three decades of Italian travel, she began renting a long-term apartment in Florence.

A love for Italy's language and cooking completes the picture of Victoria's life as an 'adoptive' Florentine.

Thank you, Victoria!

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Crossing thresholds Nelli’s lunettes reunited

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very time AWA and its dedicated partners successfully share a painting with the public thanks to restoration and exhibition, it feels as though a world has opened up – a new threshold has been crossed.

It is a joy to see Nelli’s Crucifixion reunited with its previously restored sister lunettes. These evocative views of the Last Supper Museum of Andrea del Sarto are much like welcome signs. Project curators

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Cristina Gnoni and Fausta Navarro led the way whilst Rossella Lari worked masterfully in the studio and Barbara Pini provided indispensable support on site at the museum.

An all-woman team, under the auspices of the Polo Regionale della Toscana, has worked to reclaim this painting commissioned and painted by two creative Renaissance nuns: Arcangela Viola and Plautilla Nelli.

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Songs for Nelli Musica Secreta is a British vocal ensemble dedicated to the research and performance of written music for and by women from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Their mission to restore women’s voices to their proper place in history is akin to AWA’s own quest. Together with writer Sarah Dunant – who has authored a trilogy of novels on women’s lives in Renaissance Italy – they will welcome AWA’s newest restoration by Plautilla Nelli into the limelight at the San Salvi Museum’s October inauguration in Florence.

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WA sat down with Muscia Secreta’s codirector Laurie Stras for her perspective on ‘hidden’ music ‘for and by’ women.

AWA: How important was music in sixteenthcentury convent life?

LS: The sound of convent music was the sound of the Renaissance city. Convents were a projection of magnificence and civic importance. They were also part of a city’s entertainment. Convent music attracted the public and citizens would make requests for prayers to be said. Nuns sang both pre- and post-cloistering. The better and more elaborate the music, the more effective the

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intercession with the divine. Nuns’ music was accessible to every citizen and there were many convents in every Renaissance city. The better the music the better the class of novices the convent attracted; so music had economic benefits. The nuns would be paid in gifts and kind. Families wanted to know that their daughters were in a place where life was bearable, and they could reduce the dowry they were obliged to provide the convent if the girl had a musical education.

In many ways, music was an equalizing force. A servant nun could acquire social status in the convent through her musical talents and choir nuns could hold office in their communities.

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NELLI SONGS

Laurie Stras (centre) with members of Musica Secreta

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AWA: What types of music would have been sung in Nelli’s convent?

LS: The general consensus is that the Dominicans were not overly enthusiastic about music-making, but the musical tradition is stronger in Florence than elsewhere in Italy. The idea that music took religious women away from their activities was commonly held, but Savonarola was very much in favour of communal singing as a way of democratising worship. Keep in mind, too, that Saint Catherine was a musical mystic who promoted the idea that singing was the closest you could get to God. Within this context, there was a lot of debate as to whether the music should be glorious or plain. The arch reformers believed that women’s voices were necessary, but most had to be purged of vanity. The Dominicans favoured simple music. Savonarola detested polyphony which was considered a mundane or secular practice full of flaws. According to the Council of Trent, religious music had to be intelligible. Music whose words were unclear was thought to have the potential to lead the nuns astray.

AWA: What is Musica Secreta’s mission?

LS:We want to continue to make people aware that women do contribute and have always contributed to the cultural life of society. The contributions of women cannot be erased, or worse, claimed by men. So much of women’s culture is neglected or not protected in the same way. As in many fields, the names of female composers cannot be summoned. Their names are not propagated by the press. Manuscripts have always been assumed to be by men, for example, but women did create music as well. So, there is a cultural emergency here.

We must show our younger colleagues things we are going to lose if we don’t make the emotional and intellectual effort to safeguard them. We need to preserve and train people in the skills required to make the music we make. By doing so, we can re-establish women’s voices in terms of sixteenthcentury music, ensuring that future generations have access to education and training to approach this repertoire.”

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Heavenly voice, masterful hand A spotlight on the restoration of the San Marco Codices

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USTOMS AND CAPITALS

Nelli’s precious gold-leaf-and-ink miniatures on parchment represent the earliest example of the artist’s work. Found in Codices 565 and 566, they are kept at Florence’s San Marco Museum, and are dated 1558. Her Presentation of Baby Jesus at the Temple is inspired by the Gospel of Luke and depicts a scene from the childhood of Christ, namely his presentation at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Known as the Feast of Candlemas, this episode is celebrated today in Christian churches worldwide as a sacred feast forty days after Christmas.

According to the custom known as ‘churching women’ (shared by Catholics, Anglicans and Lutherans), the new mother receives a blessing for her speedy recovery after delivery, and prayers of

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thanksgiving are offered for her survival. In Nelli’s miniature, Simeon presides over the ceremony; he is remembered for having prophesied Christ’s redemption of the world.

Nelli’s Adoration of the Baby Jesus with Mary, Joseph and two nuns is on the choir-book page dedicated to the celebration of Advent Sunday, the day on which the spiritual preparation for the coming of Christmas begins. Nelli’s historiated letter has sparked an interesting question: Might the two nuns pictured represent the artist herself, praying with her sister Petronilla, who also lived in the convent? There’s no telling, but in Florence, the world capital of female self-portraiture, we like to think that this image is Nelli’s answer to selfrepresentation!

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NELLI CODEX

AWA IS NEW TO CODEX RESTORATION Conservator Simone Martini introduced AWA to this masterful craft.

The term codex comes from the Latin word meaning ‘trunk of a tree’ or ‘block of wood’ (later, book). It is used today to describe hand-written manuscripts. “All 257 pages of these leather-bound codices underwent a dry cleaning process, before disassembling the books. The damaged threads holding the bindings together were cut, and a warm-water solution was applied with an ultra-sound device and vaporizer to detach the parchment cases from the poplar axes, prior to the removal of the binding’s bronze details.

The extremely complex sewing process was carried out using 8 supports. The book was placed inside a horizontal press in order to carry out a process known as ‘backing’ which strengthens the structure underlying the visible spine; this enables the book to open and guarantees its solidity.”

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NELLI CODEX

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NELLI CODEX

MUSIC-MAKING? With manuscript production, it is usually very difficult to prove authorship because decorative works and craftsmanship were considered community-building acts and not works of individual inspiration. So, as expected, these works are not signed. The idea of art as an expression of personal genius is a concept born from the Renaissance—a new, revolutionary idea from Nelli’s perspective . We can’t help wondering if the nuns at Nelli’s convent of Santa Caterina also composed the music!

The project was curated by Tuscany’s Regional Museum Circuit with Marilena Tamassia, the head of the San Marco Museum. The codices were presented to the public during the artist’s first-ever monographic show at the Uffizi Galleries in 2017: Plautilla Nelli: Art and Devotion in Savonarola’s Footsteps, curated by Fausta Navarro.

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Miniatures, Manuscripts, & Monasteries The 5th Jane Fortune Conference, The Colors of Paradise: Painting Miniatures in Italian Convents, ca. 1300–1700, was recently held at the Museo di San Marco.

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an Marco’s monumental library in Florence proved the perfect place in which to gain a holistic understanding of female creativity in the convents of early modern Italy.

How much access did women have to a literary education?

To what extent did they participate in religious practices and how much training could they receive when it came to manual skills?

All these questions were discussed during Colors of Paradise.

Attributions and dating techniques were at the center of scholars’ attention, as were issues such as devotional use and patronage. Individual case studies focused on miniatures and manuscripts from Florence, Milan, Perugia and Venice. Minio, quadretto, quadro: A Painter’s Progress at the Convent of Santa Caterina da Siena in Florence was the event’s keynote address by Catherine

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CONFERENCE

Manuscript making: Above, Tools of the craft.

Right: Views of the San Marco Museum and Library.

Turrill Lupi (California State University, Sacramento). The lecture Taking the Leap from Scribe to Artist by Kathleen G. Arthur was particularly close to our hearts at AWA, but other fascinating talks included San Marco curator Marilena Tamassia’s Spaces for creativity, work and prayer at the Monastery of Santa Caterina da Siena and Mercedes Pérez-Vidal’s presentation on the commissioning and production of books in Italy during the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries.

The event gave attendees a broad, muchneeded look at some of the earliest examples of surviving paintings to have been signed by women artists.

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N ews with no boundaries

Meet our first 'Emerald' Angel: Victoria Slichter

Women are spreading the word

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ver the past few months, numerous female journalists around the world have made commendable efforts to share AWA’s mission with a wider public, on line, in print and on TV. We’ve asked them to discuss their thoughts about reporting on art by ‘invisible’ women.

Karen Chernick is a Tel Aviv-based arts and culture journalist with an affinity for stories about people and places. Her writing has appeared in Artsy, Hyperallergic, Art & Object, Lonely Planet, and The Brooklyn Rail, among others.

“When I first began coming across the completely unfamiliar names of women artists while doing research for other articles, I was struck by the vastness of an alternative art history that was absent from my mainstream art history education. These were fascinating stories, waiting to be told in a broader context. It is a personal joy to take a small part in illuminating these

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overlooked artists. I was amazed by the sheer number of works hidden in Italian museum storage rooms, as well as the thoughtful three-pronged approach to placing them on gallery walls. AWA covers the arc of the efforts necessary to bring attention to “invisible” women artists – skills and resources that would evade, say, a single academic scholar, a conservator, or a museum curator.”

Jessica Phelan is a British journalist now based in Rome, after several years in France, Germany and Japan. She writes about Italian current affairs, travel and culture for Englishlanguage website The Local Italy.

“I’ve always been haunted by Virginia Woolf’s question: “What if Shakespeare had a sister?”

How much could women have created, or did they create, that the world doesn’t know about? So, a project to quite literally bring women’s art out of the shadows struck me as exciting and necessary.

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WOMEN TALK

And aside from my own interests, I knew the prospect of seeing a “hidden” side of Italy’s culture would interest our readers too. I love the fact that AWA places as much emphasis on the women who made art as the works themselves. It’s an important corrective to the notion that art is made in a flash of individual (male) inspiration, quite separate from historical, social or economic factors. For me, the fact that an artist knows how to hustle compounds my interest in her work, rather than detracting from it.”

Zuzanna Stańska is a Polish art historian, founder of Moiseum, a tech consultancy which helps museums and cultural institutions to reach their audiences with new tools. She is founder of DailyArt, a startup sharing ‘your daily dose of art’.

Since 2012, it has gathered a community of over 700,000 art lovers. DailyArt Magazine is its online magazine.

“As a founder of a mobile app DailyArt, in which, every day, we publish one piece of fine art with a short story about it, I felt like we need to spread the information about female artists among our users. Because the museums do that so rarely, we, with our daily ‘shots of art’ need to take action.

Promoting female artists forms part of our DNA. I love the times we spot an artist that is completely unknown and we create a buzz amongst our users…

They send us messages about how important it is for them is to hear these women’s stories. With DailyArt, when we don’t publish art by women for a week or two, I receive emails from our users saying that they are missing them. I’m happy to get this input; it means that when we don’t have any female artist’s work, it’s noticeable.”

Rana Kelleci is a visual artist and arts writer currently based in İstanbul, Turkey. She writes for 5harfliler.com, an online journal dedicated to gender equality and women’s issues. Their content has a witty yet critical approach on any subject concerning women.

“I am interested in investigating how women and women’s heritage are represented through digital and traditional media and in proposing fresh ways of portrayal and expression. Writing about women means that I meet talented women across history and get inspired by them. Restoration is

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not only a tool to uncover the art; it also reveals and counters the centuries-long discrimination and objectification that its female creators have faced. Thus I find it very meaningful to write about women’s art and its restoration. Recent feedback about my article about Plautilla Nelli included a sense of astonishment. A woman painter in the Renaissance was unexpected for many. It is great to see people surprised because it means they now know that this possibility is actually a reality.”

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Promoting female artists forms part of our DNA. I love the times we spot an artist that is completely unknown and we create a buzz amongst our users…

Florentine journalist Monica Carovani is deputy editor in chief at Rainews24. Her reportage on the restoration of Plautilla Nelli’s Last Supper aired nationally in the cultural features section of TUTTIFRUTTI. It sparked the interest of numerous viewers, several of whom sought her out personally by phone. Further proof that Nelli’s story prompts action!

“I am a Florentine and so, you might say I’ve been passionate about art pretty much since birth. I’ve followed the arts sector throughout the course my long career and have always noticed a lack of women’s stories in art history. Is this because of women’s traditional commitments within the family sphere or is it the result of conscious ‘forgetfulness’ on the part of those who write history? What most struck me about AWA’s mission is the drive to give great female artists in history the attention they deserve. Nelli is a perfect example. I am sure that interest in her and other women is destined to grow. Unfortunately, not much has changed for women artists since the Renaissance. It is strange but the glass ceiling that blocks equality in this sector remains intact. Art today very much continues to be ‘a man’s issue’.”

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Is Spain next?

Where AWA leads, a Spanish journalist follows … will El Prado be next to free Artemisia from storage?

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panish journalist Héctor Llanos Martínez has been writing about Arts and Culture for more than a decade. Based in Madrid, he now writes for El País, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the world, with strong presence in countries outside of Spain, including Mexico and Brazil.

Prior to occupying his current post, Héctor spent

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five years working as freelancer in Berlin, as a contributor to media such as the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Esquire, among others. This summer he came to Florence to interview AWA for his article entitled, ‘Objectivo, restaurar la historia del arte’.

We took the opportunity to ask our own questions about his experience writing the piece.

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SPAIN FOLLOWS

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WA: What did you learn while seeking out art by women in Spain’s museums in preparation for your El Pais article on AWA’s work?

Héctor Llanos Martínez: “Only seven paintings out of 1,713 on permanent display at the El Prado Museum belong to women. All of them were authored by two artists: Sofonisba Anguissola and Clara Peeters. Finding exhibited works by female artists in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía was also difficult, which is even more dire since its focus is twentieth-century art… and only eleven women have been featured in temporary exhibitions there in the last decade, compared to the 50+ male artists on show during that same span of time. There are no excuses for this because history has not yet had the chance to ‘forget’ them.

Therefore, we cannot blame the Past for the lack of female representation in Spanish museums nowadays. Our Present is also sexist. Thankfully, things are about to change forever!”

AWA: You were told by El Prado that the museum has an Artemisia Gentileschi in storage… what can you tell us about that?

HLM: “El Prado was fairly transparent when I asked about female artists in storage. That made me think that if Spain had an initiative like AWA, dozens of works made by women would be easily rescued and reclaimed. Not only Gentileschi is in the shadows. El Prado also owns works by Catarina Ykens and Mariana de la Cueva, also seventeencentury artists. Then there’s Rosario Weiss and Rosa Bonheur from the nineteenth century...”

AWA: Do you think that the upcoming show in 2020 on Sofonisba Anguissola will have an effect on the Spanish public and how?

HLM: “I do think something is changing in Spanish society which is ultimately going to have

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an effect on its museums. The Feminist movement has witnessed amazing improvements in the country during the last two years. Actually, Clara Peeters had her own show in October 2016. El Prado, Reina Sofia and Thyssen – to name just the three obvious examples – are going to adapt to ‘the new normal’. This Anguissola and Fontana show is the sign that certain doors are already open. El Prado Museum is setting a trend with this exhibition, and other museums in the rest of Spain are going to follow its lead.”

AWA: Any other reflections about this issue?

Paintings at El Prado: Artemisia Gentileschi’s The birth of Saint John the Baptist and Sofonisba Anguissola’s Elisabeth of Valois holding a portrait of Philip II

HLM: “During this amazing experience in Spain and in Florence, I learned that even journalists have to ask more often about things like the lack of representation of women in every single aspect of life. It’s true that things have gotten much better during recent years but we just can’t relax and think things are going to solve themselves from now on.”

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A changing light

for female artists?

Here’s what to read…

T

he Jane Fortune Research Program at the Medici Archive Project announces several recent and forthcoming publications.

Released in early 2018, the volume Artemisia Gentileschi in a Changing Light (ed. by Sheila Barker, Harvey Miller Publishers / Brepols) gathers twelve essays by specialists of Baroque art, including Mary D. Garrard’s leading essay.

In the August 2018 issue of The Burlington Magazine, you can read Barker’s article, ‘Marvellously gifted’: Giovanna Garzoni’s first visit to the Medici court, which is based on discoveries made in the Florentine archives regarding the artist best known for her minutely detailed

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paintings on parchment of fruits, vegetables and flowers. At the end of this year, look out for Barker’s forthcoming article for the Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Insitutes in Florenz, which publishes several new early modern biographies of women artists, including a previously unknown biography of Artemisia Gentileschi, written while she lived in Florence.

An essay co-written by Barker and Julie James on the still-life artist Suor Teresa Beatrice Vitelli will appear in a volume edited by Marilyn Dunn and Saundra Weddle. This essay will provide many insights into the life and artistic interests of a nun who lived in early eighteenth-century Florence.

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“A PHOTO ALBUM” A Recap of ‘Pathway of the Gods’

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ediscovering women artists is about creative space: where they lived and worked… and where they exhibit today. An Artist on the Pathway of the Gods was hosted at Il Palmerino, the fifteenth-century villa turned cultural center.

It was a small-scale but significant show for an explosive artist producing what the Fascists called ‘degenerative’ art at a time when ‘rebel’ Italians

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courted the Informal movement. The show’s centerpiece, an early self-portrait, was restored during the ‘Women who drew’ project to recover art-by-women on paper, spearheaded by Beatrice Cuniberti at the Atelier degli Artigianelli.

Paintings and drawings from the CollivaBertocchi Foundation and Archive in Monzuno (Bologna), travelled the Etruscan pilgrim trail to

Upper right: Il Palmerino’s Federica Parretti and Viola Angeli.

Lower right: The mayors of Monzuno and Fiesole with project organizers at the Lea Colliva show.

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PATHWAY OF THE GODS

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The exhibition’s ‘side events’ comprised poetry readings, contemporary art walks and nature hikes from one artist haunt to another.

Internationally renowned art-by-women scholars and cutting-edge female artists led the way.

Left and right: Side events and Lea Colliva’s colorful canvases at the Pathway of the Gods exhibition.

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PATHWAY OF THE GODS

reach the former home of artist Lola Costa and writer Vernon Lee. The exhibition’s ‘side events’ comprised poetry readings, contemporary art walks and nature hikes from one artist haunt to another. Internationally renowned art-by-women scholars and cuttingedge female artists led the way.

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Do you follow awa_foundation?

Our love for the visual arts is now ‘social’. AWA has joined the 21st century thanks to the efforts of our volunteer cultural representative, Leslie Jmaeff, who keeps our followers up to date on news and events in the art-by-women world. Check out Leslie’s timely posts on Instagram. (We’re also on Facebook!)

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INSTAGRAM

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Where will you be when the Last Supper is unveiled?

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s we conclude the autumn 2018 issue of Inside AWA, a question comes to mind. Will you be with us next October when Plautilla Nelli’s Last Supper is restored to the world?

Friends and supporters from near and far will want to start thinking about joining AWA’s 2019 Sojourn, during which Nelli’s masterwork will debut at the Santa Maria Novella Museum after four years in the restoration studio and 450 years unseen by the public eye. Dates will be announced soon, so keep your Sojourn calendars ready!

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FOR LOVERS OF TRAVEL, ARCHAEOLOGY AND ART

In-depth articles |stunning photographs wonderful sites to explore www.timeless-travels.co.uk 061 TT Ad.indd 72

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Through Advocacy, Contributions, Volunteering and Research, please join us. www.advancingwomenartists.org info@advancingwomenartists.org advancingwomenartists

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