It is important to see today’s successful women working to reclaim the forgotten past.”Ĭay Fortune, in recognition of Jane Fortune’s work with Advancing Women Artists Nelli’s restorer Rossella Lari works with two female museum curators, of the 30-plus that direct the city’s museums. “Since the 1966 flood, restoration has become a field dominated by women in Florence.
Jane Adams, Saint Bartholomew, in memory of Josephine O’Brien, a chemist who would have been interested in how Nelli learned to mix pigments The strength of this painting is spiritually moving.” Many nuns of Nelli’s time had ‘visions’ the only way women could speak unchallenged was through divine intervention. “As artistic heir to Fra’ Bartolomeo, whose 500 drawings she inherited, Florentine nobles believed her works to be holy. Thomas, Judas and John are known for certain, the rest await rediscovery as does the painter herself.”īill Fortune and Joe Blakley, Saint Peterĭo Nelli’s paintings have spiritual power? The chance to become an art detective is exciting. “We hope to identify each of Nelli’s Apostles by comparing her work with that of her sixteenth-century counterparts. Saint Matthew for Bob Hesse, the organization’s co-founder. Women artists simply did not tackle history painting, life-size figures and least of all Last Suppers which came to symbolize male mastery.”ĪWA founder Jane Fortune. I think she wanted posterity to know the painting was authored by a woman. “Renaissance masters didn’t usually sign their works, but Nelli did. Her workshop stitched together three 21-foot canvases, and then constructed scaffolding. “It was illegal for women to study anatomy, but that did not stop Nelli from emulating Leonardo by tackling the life-size male, probably by studying the corpses of deceased nuns. The fact she became a working artist and entrepreneur is a success story for creative women everywhere, in the fields of both art and business.”Īlice Vogler, Saint James the Elder, for Lynne Wisneski, art patron Renaissance women did not have legal standing and could not issue invoices. “Nelli’s all-women workshop made her convent self-sufficient. Plautilla Nelli was the most important female painter of the Florentine Renaissance and her city will pay homage to her by exhibiting this work in the Santa Maria Novella museum complex.”Īs the Last Supper’s three missing patrons join the restoration effort, confirmed adopters of Nelli’s apostles share what they find most intriguing about the artist and her painting. I appeal to the generosity of the Florentines, so that together with citizens from other countries can give The Last Supper new life. Mayor of Florence Dario Nardella has been at the forefront of Nelli’s restoration whilst spearheading a massive restoration project for the SMN Museum: “I hope that all the apostles will soon be ‘adopted’, and that the restoration will soon be completed. Thomas, Simon and Philip are still seeking “parents”, while the other saints are well on their way to being “saved”. The “adoption” of the painting’s figures by individuals throughout the world ($10,000 per saint and $25,000 for the figure of Christ) will catapult the project toward completion, making Nelli’s Last Supper ready for exhibition in Florence’s Museum of Santa Maria Novella in October 2019. Its crowd-funding campaign completed two years later garnered 65,000 dollars in online contributions from 410 donors in 19 countries. Advancing Women Artists (AWA), a US-based non-profit restoring art by women in Florence for over a decade, has taken Nelli’s petition literally: pray for the paintress so that the hidden half of the Renaissance may be fully revealed, to celebrate Nelli’s creative legacy and encourage art lovers all over the world to safeguard her art through restoration.ĪWA’s Adopt an Apostle program is phase two of #TheFirstLast, a four-year restoration campaign, in collaboration with the City of Florence, which was launched in 2015. Photo: Camilla Cheadeįlorentine Renaissance painter Plautilla Nelli authored the only early Last Supper by a woman artist and signed her massive masterwork with a call to action: “Pray for the ‘paintress’”. Photo: Kirsten Hillsįlorentine conservator Rossella Lari at the end of phase I, post stucco work. Detail of Apostle, probably Judas Thaddeus. Most saints in Nelli’s Supper have yet to be named.
Preparing ‘the Apostles’ for the Santa Maria Novella Museum in 2019. Advancing Women Artists with Florence Mayor Dario Nardella and Vice Mayor Cristina Giachi. Saint Thomas (center) awaits ‘adoption’ Photo: Kirsten HillsĪ joint effort. Working on scaffolding for the painting’s reconstruction. Detail of Christ and Saint John, phase I.
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