The nun-painter Suor Plautilla Nelli (1524–1588) was the first Florentine woman to achieve fame as a painter. Giorgio Vasari included a brief tribute to her in his second edition of the Lives, writing: “she has done some things so well as to excite the wonder of artists.”
Plautilla produced artworks of distinction and beauty both for their own sake and as a practical means of supporting her convent of Santa Caterina da Siena in Florence, located across the piazza from the church and monastery of San Marco.
The exhibition includes works both for sale and on loan from private American and European collections. It is the first exhibition outside of Florence to be dedicated to this worthy and enterprising artist, whose life is only minimally documented but whom we have come to know and esteem from the legacy of her art.
Opening Reception: Thursday October 22nd, 5:00-8:30PM
Image: Suor Plautilla Nelli (1524–1588), Head of a Friar (after Fra Bartolomeo) (detail), black chalk on paper. 13 1/8 x 9 1/8 inches (33.5 x 23.4 cm)
