Description
In Renaissance Florence, Plautilla Nelli founded a workshop of nun-artists and authored a 21-foot Last Supper she would sign, ‘Pray for the Paintress’. Over four centuries later, international art lovers band together to salvage her forgotten masterpiece. Now the world’s largest work by an early female artist is on public display in the Museum of Santa Maria Novella. A four-year journey of restoration and research, this quest is a bridge across time and the contemporary answer to Nelli’s appeal, where the past and present meet and make history, in Florence, today.
Sister Plautilla Nelli’s magnificent painting, the Last Supper, has returned to the museum spotlight at Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy.
Index:
Tommaso Sacchi / Introduction
TODAY AND IN HISTORY
Linda Falcone / Unveiling
Silvia Colucci / On the trail of Plautilla’s Last Supper
CONSERVATION AND DETAILS
Rossella Lari / Shared impressions and choral knowledge
Silvia Ciappi / Transparencies of light
Francesco Morena / A porcelain symphony
WORK IN PROGRESS
Susanna Bracci, Donata Magrini / Plautilla’s palette
NELLI ANEW
Andrea Muzzi / ‘A nun who paints’
Padre Aldo Tarquini O.P. / In black and white
Bibliography
Advancing Women Artists Foundation
Advancing Women Artists, an American not-for-profit organization, is committed to identifying and restoring artwork by women in Florence’s museum storerooms.
Myriad paintings and sculptures by groundbreaking women artists have been overlooked for centuries and countless works are currently in need of restoration.
As of today, compelling artistic treasures continue to be a silent, undiscovered part of the city’s creative heritage. Through education (publications, seminars, and conferences) and by exhibiting these works in Florence and farther afield, it is possible to reveal this vital cultural legacy and promote its importance in Italy and the world.
