''Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence'' is a 2009 book in English and Italian by

Jane Fortune Jane Fortune (August 7, 1942 – September 23, 2018) was an American author and journalist. Many of her publications and philanthropic activities were centered on the research, restoration, and exhibition of art by women in Florence, Italy. Wri ...

through the

Advancing Women Artists Foundation Advancing Women Artists Foundation (AWA) was an American not-for-profit organization (501(c)3), with headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Florence, Italy. AWA is committed to identifying and restoring artwork by Florence's female artists i ...

(AWA) and published by The Florentine Press. The book describes the history of female artists in Florence and their hundreds of works in the city's museums or storehouses. AWA has rediscovered at least 2,000 works by women artists that have been forgotten in museum attics and churches of Florence, and they have restored more than 60 paintings so far. Contributing authors include Linda Falcone, Serena Padovani, Rosella Lari and Sheila Barker. It has twenty-six chapters on thirty-five women artists active in Florence. The book was the basis of a five-part

Emmy award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

winning television documentary, produced by WFYI Productions, which was first broadcast on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

in 2012.

Description

''Invisible Women'' discusses female artistic influence in Florence starting with the first known Florentine nun-artist

Suor Plautilla Nelli Sister Plautilla Nelli (1524–1588) was a self-taught nun-artist and the first ever known female Italian Renaissance painting, Renaissance painter of Florence. She was a nun of the Dominican convent, Dominican convent of St. Catherine of Siena l ...

. It describes the city as a center for women court artists in the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

period as exemplified by the teacher-student succession of

Giovanna Fratellini Giovanna Fratellini (1666 – 1731) was a Florentine artist during the Baroque period. Born in Florence as Giovanna Marrmocchini Cortesi, she married Guiliano Fratellini in 1685 and changed her name to Fratellini.Fortune, Jane, and Linda Falcone. ...

Violante Siries Cerroti Violante Beatrice Siries (1709–1783) was an Italian painter. She was born in Florence and studied under Hyacinthe Rigaud and François Boucher in Paris from 1726. Returning later to Florence she married Giuseppe Cerroti and continued her artisti ...

, and

Anna Bacherini Piattoli Anna Bacherini Piattoli (1720–1788) was an Italian painter. Biography Born in Florence, Piattoli studied with Francesco Ciaminghi, Francesco Conti, and Violante Beatrice Siries. She married the painter Gaetano Piattoli in 1741; the couple's s ...

. Other chapters highlight painters granted the honor of displaying their self-portrait in the

Vasari Corridor The Vasari Corridor ( it, Corridoio Vasariano) is an elevated enclosed passageway in Florence, central Italy, connecting the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti. Beginning on the south side of the Palazzo Vecchio, it joins the Uffizi Galle ...

such as the Venetian

Giulia Lama Giulia Lama (1 October 1681 – 7 October 1747) was an Italian painter, active in Venice. Her dark, tense style contrasted with the dominant pastel colors of the late Baroque era. Biography Lama was born in the parish of Santa Maria Formosa in ...

, the first woman known to draw and study the male nude from a live model, and

Marietta Robusti Marietta Robusti (1560? – 1590) was a Venetian painter of the Renaissance period. She was the daughter of Tintoretto and is sometimes referred to as ''Tintoretta''. Biography The only known primary source for details of Marietta Robusti's lif ...

, the daughter of

Tintoretto Tintoretto ( , , ; born Jacopo Robusti; late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594) was an Italian painter identified with the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized the speed with ...

who was often called "La Tintoretta." The book covers still-life painters such as Maria Van Oosterwyck and

Margherita Caffi Margherita Caffi (1650 – 20 September 1710) was an Italian painter of still lifes of flowers and fruit. She was born Margherita Volo, in Milan to Francesco Volo (a still-life painter himself) and his wife, Veronica. In 1668, she married Ludivi ...

best known for her elaborate bouquets with freely hanging wild flowers. Fortune focuses on six specific buildings in Florence including the Marucelliana Library, the Last Supper Museum of Andrea del Sarto, and the Gallery of Modern Art in the Pitti Palace. Other chapters include work on

Sofonisba Anguissola Sofonisba Anguissola ( – 16 November 1625), also known as Sophonisba Angussola or Sophonisba Anguisciola, was an Italian Renaissance painting, Italian Renaissance painter born in Cremona to a relatively poor noble family. She received a ...

whose admirers included

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

and

Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh c ...

;

Lavinia Fontana Lavinia Fontana (August 24, 1552 – August 11, 1614) was a Bologna, Bolognese Mannerism, Mannerist painter active in Bologna and Rome. She is best known for her successful portraiture, but also worked in the genres of mythology and religious pai ...

, the first female painter in Western Europe to reach the same level of professional acclaim as her male contemporaries;

Artemisia Gentileschi Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi (, ; 8 July 1593) was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing profess ...

who created large-scale images of heroines; and seventeenth-century pastelist

Rosalba Carriera Rosalba Carriera (12 January 1673 – 15 April 1757) was a Venetian Rococo painter. In her younger years, she specialized in portrait miniatures. Carriera would later become known for her pastel portraits, helping popularize the medium in eighte ...

known for her

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

style and flattering portraits of the wealthy. ''Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence'' focuses on oil paintings, pastels, watercolors, and drawings. The chapters are followed by ''The Woman Artists' Trail'', a map and an inventory of works by women artists in Florence, which was later adapted into the separate, pocket-size guidebook, '' Art by Women in Florence: A Guide through Five Hundred Years.''

Documentary

Producer Todd Gould and executive producer Clayton Taylor worked with Fortune and the AWA to produce a five-part television documentary. It describes a six-year project to research, restore, and exhibit works of art by women in Florence's museums and storage covering the restoration of works by three artists: Plautilla Nelli, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Irene Parenti Duclos who is the only woman featured in Florence's Accademia Gallery today. The documentary illustrates main themes featured in the book along with additional interviews with the Advancing Women Artists Foundation team, restoration experts, and executives from several museums in the United States and from the Polo Museale Florentino. WFYI Productions filmed the documentary which included footage provided by The Florentine Press, Artmedia, and Bunker Film. It first aired in the U.S. on

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

on November 5, 2012. On June 1, 2013, the documentary won an Emmy Award as Best Documentary in the Cultural/Historical Program category by the regional

National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, edu ...

Partial list of women artists mentioned (listed in the order named in the book)

(1524–1588) *

(1666–1731) *

(1709–1783) *

(1720–1788) * Luisa Silei (1825–1898) * Fillide Giorgi Levasti (1883–1966) * Beatrice Ancillotti Goretti (1879–1937) * Maria Maddalena Gozzi (1718–1782) * Emma Bardini Tozzi (1883–1962) *

Arcangela Paladini Arcangela Paladini (or Arcangiola Palladini) (Pisa 1599 – Florence 1622) was an Italian painter, singer and poet. Early life and education Arcangela Paladini was the daughter of Florentine painter Filippo Paladini (1544–1616), and a pupil of ...

(1599–1622) *

(1681–1747) *

(c. 1552 – 1590) * Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun (1755–1842) *

Angelica Kauffmann Maria Anna Angelika Kauffmann ( ; 30 October 1741 – 5 November 1807), usually known in English as Angelica Kauffman, was a Swiss Neoclassical painter who had a successful career in London and Rome. Remembered primarily as a history painter, K ...

(1741–1807) *

Rosa Bonheur Rosa Bonheur (born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur; 16 March 1822 – 25 May 1899) was a French artist known best as a painter of animals ( animalière). She also made sculpture in a realist style. Her paintings include '' Ploughing in the Nivernais'', fi ...

(1822–1899) *

Rachel Ruysch Rachel Ruysch (3 June 1664 – 12 October 1750) was a Dutch still-life painter from the Northern Netherlands. She specialized in flowers, inventing her own style and achieving international fame in her lifetime. Due to a long and successful care ...

(1664–1750) *

Clara Peeters Clara Peeters (active 1607–1621) was a Flemish still-life painter from Antwerp who worked in both the Spanish Netherlands and Dutch Republic. Peeters is the best-known female Flemish artist of this era and one of the few women artists workin ...

(1594-post-1657) * Maria Van Oosterwyck (1630–1693) *

(1664–1750) *

Giovanna Garzoni Giovanna Garzoni (1600–1670) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. She began her career painting religious, mythological, and allegorical subjects but gained fame for her botanical subjects painted in tempera and watercolour.Jordi Vigu ...

(1600–1670) *

(1650–1710) *

Irene Parenti Duclos Irene Parenti Duclos (or Irene Parenti, or her academic nickname Lincasta Ericinia) (1754–1795) was an Italian painter and poet. Her work as an expert copyist of old master paintings was highly valued in her era, and brought her honors from seve ...

(1754–1795) * Maria Hadfield Cosway (1760–1838) *

Elisabetta Sirani Elisabetta Sirani (8 January 1638 – 28 August 1665) was an Italian Baroque painter and printmaker who died in unexplained circumstances at the age of 27. She was a pioneering female artist in early modern Bologna, who established an academy fo ...

(1638–1665) * Louisa Grace Bartolini (1818–1865) * Elisabeth Chaplin (1892–1982) *

Adriana Pincherle Adriana Pincherle (Rome, 1905 - Florence, 1996) was an Italian painter. Childhood and education Adriana Pincherle, the older sister of writer Alberto Moravia, came from an upper-middle-class family. Her father, Carlo Pincherle, was Jewish and he ...

(1907–1996) * Leonetta Pieraccini Cecchi (1882–1977) *

(1532–1625) *

(1552–1614) *

(1593–1653)

References

{{Authority control Art history books 2009 non-fiction books History books about Florence Books about women Books about artists History of women in Italy