Rossella Lari: I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to the Florence Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and in particular to Jane Fortune and Magnolia Scudieri, for giving me the opportunity to restore Plautilla Nelli’s Lamentation. Often people have asked me what I felt as I carried out this project, and only now, at the end, can I express the different sensations that it inspired in me. Let me begin, however, by saying that in every project, a conservator must have two different approaches to the work in question. First, you need to look at it as a whole, exchanging impressions and evaluations with the art historian who follows the project. Later, when you enter into the operative stage, with brushes and scalpels in hand, you can consider only the physical reality of the work, without allowing yourself any emotions about the image itself. You need this distance in order to save the smallest paint flake, independent of the value of the painting or how much you like it.
At the end of the day, however, I often let myself be moved by the timid compassion that emanates from the faces of the crying women. As a woman, I let myself be carried back in time, to imagine the life of Sister Plautilla and her companions within the confines of the convent. At this point, as I rock myself in this dreamy spirit, the emotions arrive: with pleasure and a touch of pain I try to identify with Plautilla’s emotions. From this restoration I have come away enriched as a restorer, and as a person. Thanks to all of you. Thank you, Plautilla.
Jane Fortune: In the October 19, 2006 issue, I wrote an article about Suor Plautilla Nelli, the first known woman painter of Florence and about the restoration of her painting Lamentation with Saints, which was unveiled last October and can be seen in the large refectory at the Museo di San Marco. The Florence Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts restored the painting and produced a DVD on the project. I asked the renowned restorer, Rossella Lari, to express how she felt as she was restoring the painting, which is included as part of the DVD. I was very moved by what she said and would like to share it with our readers. As Jonathan Nelson (a Syracuse University/ Florence professor and editor of the book Suor Plautilla Nelli, The First Woman Painter of Florence) expressed to me, ‘often a restorer works with a sense of detachment, in order to be fair and accurate, but after work, feels the emotion of his or her work’. We, who were deeply connected to this restoration project, have become very emotionally tied to Suor Plautilla Nelli and for me, she will forever be part of my soul.
