{"id":12382,"date":"2016-10-25T08:30:52","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T06:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/?p=12382"},"modified":"2020-10-21T12:45:59","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T10:45:59","slug":"female-painter-florence-flood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/female-painter-florence-flood\/","title":{"rendered":"A Female Painter’s Work Rises from the Mud of the Florence Flood"},"content":{"rendered":"

18th-century painter Violante Siri\u00e8s Cerroti was a leading Rococco painter in Florence. She made a copy of an altarpiece by Luca Giordano in the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena de\u2019 Pazzi for the same church’s sacristy, indicating that the subject matter was particularly important to the nuns who resided there. Considered a masterpiece of female devotion, the work was highly damaged by the Florence flood of 1966, of which we are celebrating the 50th anniversary in November 2016. Now, the Advancing Women Artists Foundation has sponsored a two year restoration of the work, returning it to its previous glory, which one can see in a beautiful short documentary film (shown here).<\/p>\n

\"Restorers
Restorers at work on Violante’s painting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

Violante Siri\u00e8s Cerroti\u2019s masterwork miraculously survived being immersed in mud when Florence\u2019s 1966 flood ravaged the city, destroying over 14,000 works of art. The painting needed restoration, but no one knew how much until the restorers removed it from its niche fifty years after the disaster. Restorers discovered that the receding flood waters left extreme humidity in the church\u2019s walls, creating a perfect breeding ground for mold and causing unforeseen damage to the painting\u2019s niche. \u201cI have never seen such an extensive mold attack on a painting,\u201d exclaims restorer Dr. Elizabeth Wicks, who together with Nicoletta Fontani, carried out the restoration, funded by the Advancing Women Artists Foundation and Dr. Jane Fortune. \u201cMold had eaten away at the canvas size and ground layers and large areas of paint were separated from the canvas and risked flaking. Over two- thirds of the plaster wall hidden behind the painting had crumbled.\u201d The documentary shows the process by which restorers removed the mold and consolidated the painting.<\/p>\n

\"The
The consolidated painting about to be mounted on its new custom support<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Who was Violante Siri\u00e8s Cerroti?<\/h2>\n

Violante Siri\u00e8s Cerroti (1709-1783) , a leading paintress of her day, flourished in eighteenth-century Florence, where she worked as an esteemed portraitist for Tuscany dynasties such as the Gondi and Sandedoni families. Having studied in Paris with Rococo masters Rigaud and Boucher she was in high demand with Tuscan nobles and wealthy Grand Tour Travelers. Violante\u2019s father Louis Sirie\u0300s was fundamental in generating these commissions. Louis was a French engraver, who revolutionized decorative stone work as Director of the Tuscan Grand Dukes\u2019 Semi precious stone workshop in the Uffizi.<\/p>\n

An early student of Medici Court artist Giovanna Fratellini, Sirie\u0300s Cerroti was a teacher of other professional painters including Anna Piattoli and Maria Hadfield Cosway. Their creative circle helped establish Florence as a center for women in the arts. Each were honored with membership to Europe\u2019s first drawing academy, the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, an otherwise male prerogative.<\/p>\n

Violante’s Virgin Mary after Luca Giordano<\/h2>\n
\"The
The restored work<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cViolante was the first woman granted permission to copy at the Uffizi Gallery, shortly after it first opened in 1770. In the eighteenth century, copying was not only a source of training for artists, it was also a common commercial practice,\u201d explains AWA research Poiret Masse. \u201c[At this time,] copies were not perceived as slavish imitations of an original. Violante\u2019s painting is a great example. When compared with Giordano\u2019s work, it has its own integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Virgin Mary Presents the Baby Jesus to Santa Maria Maddalena de\u2019 Pazzi resides in the sacristy of the church of Santa Maria Maddalena de\u2019 Pazzi, an exquisite example of Baroque architecture in the center of Florence. It honors the miraculous visions of a local Florentine saint and is a magnificent copy of Luca Giordano\u2019s earlier work in the church\u2019s main chapel. Painted in 1767, it represents one of Florence\u2019s very few examples of a large-scale devotional canvas by a woman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe painting has now been placed in its original restored frame, and has finally returned to its fully restored niche. By salvaging Violante\u2019s art we are hoping to restore her story,” says\u00a0Dr. Jane Fortune, AWA\u2019s founder and Chairman. “She was hugely successful in her lifetime and has been virtually forgotten. And Violante is not alone. Thousands of invisible works by women artists are languishing in storage in Italy, waiting for a space of their own. The ultimate goal is to give these artists a voice in history.\u201d Fortune hopes that this restoration will bring to light this plight and help find donors interested in helping. She has already identified other works by Violante (as well as by other female artists) in need of restoration, such as a unique image of the Madonna reading, located at the Benedictine Monastery of San Lorenzo al Monte, just outside of Florence.<\/p>\n

For more information please see www.advancingwomenartists.org <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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