Jane Fortune

    Author and philanthropist, Dr. Jane Fortune is founder and chair of the Advancing Women Artists Foundation and creator of the Jane Fortune Research Program on Women Artists in the Age of the Medici at the Medici Archive Project. Her books include When the World Answered: Florence, Women Artists and the 1966 Flood; To Florence, Con Amore: 90 Ways to Love the City; Art by Women in Florence and Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence. She is known as “Indiana Jane” because of her efforts to identify and restore art by women artists in Florentine museums and deposits.

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    ART + CULTURE

    Renaissance Florentine Opera

    Florence is dominated by Renaissance painting and sculpture. However, while it is not widely recognized locally, nationally or internationally, what we know as opera today began in Florence. Its birth represents an important epoch in the evolution of the Renassance and marks a very important milestone in the development of

    ART + CULTURE

    Trattoria Armando

    Trattoria Armando 140/r Via Borgognissanti055-216-219Closed Sunday and Monday for lunchA few steps away from the Teatro Comunale, Armando has served genuine dishes since 1957, using only the freshest seasonal ingredients and traditional Tuscan recipes. Guests are warmly welcomed by Alessandra and Daniele, who often offer a glass

    ART + CULTURE

    Officina Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella

    L’Officina Farmaceutica di Santa Maria NovellaVia della Scala, 16Open: Mon-Sat: 9:30am to 7:30pmOne of the oldest pharmacies in the world, l’Officina Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella was founded in 1221, when Dominican friars first started using natural methods to cultivate plants and herbs

    ART + CULTURE

    Trattoria Zibibbo

    ZIBIBBOVia di Terzollina 3/rTel: 055 433 383 (reservations are necessary) Monday-Friday: 8am-11pmSaturday: 8am-12pm Sunday:10am-3pmTen minutes from the center of Florence, this fabulous trattoria is unmistakably Mediterranean in flavor. Its kitchen is personally overseen by one of Florence’s most talented chefs, owner Benedetta

    ART + CULTURE

    Works by women artists in Florence museums

    During my research for an upcoming guide book, I have come across a total of 45 women artists represented in Florentine museums. As an art-lover, rather than art historian, I was initially surprised to find so many works by both Italian and non-Italian women present in city museums,

    ART + CULTURE

    Giuggiu Jewellery

    Angela CaputiVia S. Spirito 58/r055-212-972www.angelalcaputi.com Angela Caputi founded her signature ‘Giuggiu’ collection in Florence, in 1975. Known throughout Italy and abroad, she designs very high fashion costume jewelry. Her workshop, located at Via S. Spirito, 58, is staffed only by women–it

    ART + CULTURE

    Artisan belts

    InfinityBorgo S.S. Aspostoli 18/r055-239-8405www.infinityfirenze.com Since 1973, Eugenio Provaroni and his American wife, Jane Dengler, have designed and hand made exquisite, often one of a kind, contemporary leather and metal belts in the old Florentine tradition. Their small workshop is located in an 11th-century

    ART + CULTURE

    Ristorante La Maremma

    Owner Enzo Ragazzini and his son, Luca, have been advising us on their food and wine for many years (with impromptu Italian lessons thrown in). Years ago we had a large family gathering at La Maremma. My partner, Bob, however, was not with us because he was ill. As we

    ART + CULTURE

    Orate pro pictoria – Prayer for the painter

    She came from a wealthy family with a street in Florence named after them. She hobnobbed with the famous painters of her day. She painted prodigiously, but only three paintings have been authenticated. Today, she remains virtually unknown. Who was she?   She was a woman at a time when

    ART + CULTURE

    The Church of Santa Croce

    Florence’s Pantheon and my favorite church in Florence, Santa Croce hosts 270 tombstones that pave the floor of the church, honoring those who strongly impacted the course of history in the fields of art, history and music. The most famous tomb belongs to Michelangelo, followed by those of

    ART + CULTURE

    Unforgettable places and special works of art

    Tabernacles are lovely frescoed or sculptured niches shaped like small temples. During medieval times they were placed on almost every corner and usually contained a sacred image— often of the ...

    ART + CULTURE

    Museo di San Marco

    The Museum of San Marco was opened to the public in 1869 after the abolition of monasteries, which occurred in 1866. It has its own place inside the old monastery of San Marco, built between 1437 and 1444 under the patronage of Cosimo de’ Medici for the reformed Dominican

    ART + CULTURE

    Chiesa La Badia Fiorentina

    Chiesa La Badia FiorentinaVia del ProconsoloMidday Prayer Tuesday-Saturdayat 12:30pmThe church was founded and endowed in 978 by the German princess Willa, widow of Umberto, Margrave of Tuscia (Tuscany). The slender bell tower (la badia) is a landmark in the Florentine skyline and used to call the artisans to

    ART + CULTURE

    Unforgettable places and special works of art

    Ilove any work by Jacopo Pontormo, a tortured soul who produced amazing Manneristic colors in his works. Doris Kryst describes Man-nerism as ‘an emotional accentuation of movement and expressions of the body, eccentric composition of space with distorted perspective, anatomical exaggeration, restless variation of light and artificial color.&

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