• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
    • Awards & Honors, Pomp & Circumstance
  • Blog
    • Modern, 18th, 19th Century
    • Baroque, Rococo
    • Renaissance
    • Ancient, Roman, Medieval
    • Culture, Festivals, Music, Literature
    • Art News, Current Events
  • FaceBook
  • Pinterest
  • Italian with Melissa
    • Studentessa Matta Italian Site
    • Learn Italian at home with Melissa
    • Study in Italy with Melissa
  • Melissa’s Books
    • Melissa’s Author Website
  • Store
  • Sign Up & Connect
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
Art of Loving Italy

Art of Loving Italy

Art & Beauty are all around us.

In search of forgotten female Florentine artists —Indiana Jane leads the quest

February 7, 2023 by Melissa Muldoon Leave a Comment

Jane-Fortune-Indiana-Author-Renaissance-Invisible-Women-Forgotten-Artists-Florence
Image Credit: Portrait of a lady (1540). J Zucchi, Indianpolis Museum of Art

Invisible Women. Forgotten artists of Florence — the work and legacy of Jane Fortune.

Florence is the birthplace of some of the world’s most famous artists, scientists, and architects. Consider some famous names like Michelangelo, Leonardo, Brunelleschi, and Galileo. But what are we missing in this litany of familiar names? 

A name of a woman!

As you can imagine, being a center of creativity for more than five hundred years, dating from the Renaissance onwards, there were women who painted and painted well. But rarely, if ever, do we hear about these women. Moreover, little is known about them, except they bravely challenged societal norms and chose to become Florentine painters, despite their gender.

In the Renaissance, intellectualism and creativity were considered masculine traits. During the 1500s, women who possessed these characteristics were regarded as wonders of nature, and a canvas painted by a woman was considered a bit of an oddity.

“Simply being artistic, a woman entered the realm considered to belong only to men.” – Jennifer Lee, Assoc. Professor of Art History – Indiana University – Purdue University at Indianapolis

Jane-Fortune-Indiana-Author-Renaissance-Invisible-Women-Forgotten-Artists-Florence
Image Credit: “Indiana Jane” Fortune

Although these paintings made by women are masterful in their own right, as important as those painted by their masculine peers, they were dismissed and hidden from the public. To correct this, Jane Fortune, an art historian from Indiana who worked for the Advancing Women Artists Foundation (AWA) (an American not-for-profit organization) with headquarters in Indianapolis and Florence, made it her mission to discover and bring to light the women artists who fell into the shadows.

Jane-Fortune-Indiana-Author-Renaissance-Invisible-Women-Forgotten-Artists-Florence
Image Credit: Deposition of Christ, Suor Plautill Nelli
David and Bathsheba, Artemisia Gentileschi

Dubbed “Indiana Jane,” this woman and her team of restorers made it their mission to find artworks hidden in the Uffizi’s basements and Florence’s attics, recover damaged pieces, and give them their proper placement on the walls of museums. In 2006, her quest brought to light the work of Suor Plautill Nelli, Florence’s earliest recognized woman painter. In 2008, her mission continued with the restoration of David and Bathsheba by seventeenth-century Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi.

Jane-Fortune-Indiana-Author-Renaissance-Invisible-Women-Forgotten-Artists-Florence
Image Credit: Adobe Photo Stock

Jane Fortune passed away in 2018 at the age of 76. A memorial service was held for her at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence. Jane may be gone from this earth, but her accomplishments live on. Because of Jane’s dogged efforts to uncover and repair works by women painters from the 15th and 16th centuries, we now have the opportunity to admire the other half of Florentine art. The half that talented women artists created.

Jane-Fortune-Indiana-Author-Renaissance-Invisible-Women-Forgotten-Artists-Florence
e Credit: Adobe Photo Stock

Jane’s book “Invisible Women,” (published by the Florentine Press), now a PBS documentary, talks about her quest. In 2013, at the Odeon Cinehall, in Piazza Strozzi in Florence, Emmy award-winning documentary “Invisible Women” was presented — to which this student of art received an invitation.


The film is available online and
can be viewed on Youtube




Restoring a painting — Art Restoration Techniques


Share this post

Share
Tweet
Pin
Share
Share
Email

Related Posts

Filed Under: Renaissance Tagged With: Invisible Women, Jane Fortune

Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment. I love hearing from you in English or Italian! Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to the Art of Loving Italy Blog

Follow along on Instagram @studentessamatta

Montepulciano. Tira vento. Fresca. Al buio. Sempre Montepulciano. Tira vento. Fresca. Al buio. Sempre affascinante.
Arrivato mio marito a Montepulciano. Eccoci. Vista Arrivato mio marito a Montepulciano. Eccoci. Vista romantica al locale Romantico.
Andare coraggiosamente dove la preposizione italia Andare coraggiosamente dove la preposizione italiana "SU" ci porta! Matta Preposition Set #13 Boldly going where the Italian Preposition “SU” takes us! Matta Preposition Set #13 Proprio come un veicolo spaziale spinge gli astronauti nel cosmo, la "preposizione italiana “su" aiuta le nostre parole a viaggiare attraverso l'universo delle frasi italiane, dando loro direzione, posizione e scopo. Just as a spacecraft propels astronauts into the cosmos, the “Italian preposition “su” helps our words journey through the universe of Italian sentences, giving them direction, location, and purpose....

https://www.studentessamatta.com/boldly-going-where-the-italian-preposition-su-takes-us-matta-preposition-set-13/
Amaro del Capo… beh, perché no? Grazie alla gen Amaro del Capo… beh, perché no? Grazie alla gente di Quattro Venti! 🤩 #quattroventi
Pici Pici Pici Pici! Dopo il vino e la pioggia c’è sempre la voglia di Pici!
Ok sembra una torta di fragola… ma invece è un Ok sembra una torta di fragola… ma invece è un tortino di cavolo rosso e zucchini con salsa di pecorino🥳 al ristorante Quattro Venti
Dove si va dopo una tempesta a Montepulciano? Alla Dove si va dopo una tempesta a Montepulciano? Alla fortezza naturalmente per godersi un buon vino e un sole pomeridiano che riemerge fortemente!

Melissa Muldoon © 2023 Built with and Genesis Framework by Bellano Web Studio