Let me start with a confession and get it over with!
I have to admit that much as I loved the AWA Artemisia Conferences last week my highest spot, as a lifelong Monty Python fan, was meeting and chatting to Michael Palin …!
However, I am in good company… Jane Fortune described him to all attendees of Friday’s Advisors meeting as just “The Nicest Englishman I have ever met” …… (I guess the description “Englishman” got her off the hook with her American life partner Bob – my English husband was less impressed when I inadvertently said I agreed with her!)
The Advancing Women Artists Foundation holds a Conference every year, but this years Conference for Artemesia Gentileschi created an such a flurry of International interest that it was, in fact, over subscribed.
Michael Palin is preparing a programme on Artemesia for BBC2 so having all these experts together in the City where she was the first female member of the Florence Academy of Arts was too good an opportunity to miss. He made a special visit to Florence to join the Conference in the glorious Sala Bianca, in the Palazzo Pitti and interview, and be interviewed by, Jane Fortune.
Dr Sheila Barker , shown below, is the Director of The Jane Fortune Research Program on Women Artists in the Age of the Medici, and was responsible for organising the Conference and the publicity for the event.
The Mission of the Advancing Women Artists Foundation is to identify and restore artworks by women in Florence museums and storage.
This is a huge undertaking because more than 2,000 paintings sculptures and drawings have been lying overlooked in Florence’s vast museum deposits for centuries.
Even the better known works, such as Artemesia’s enormous painting of David and Bathsheba, was difficult to locate – damaged over hundreds of years of poor storage and humidity damage the painting’s colour was flaking off when it was finally unearthed. It was initially believed to be held in storage in the basement of the Uffizi – but was ultimately found in the attic of the Pitti Palace where now, after restoration by AWA Foundation, it is available for display but seems to only be brought out for special exhibitions and conferences. We also learnt from Jane Fortune that this was partly due to the fact that it was not possible to recover Bathsheba’s damaged eye – and the Director would like to do more work to restore her beauty – but of course this would not be restoration but repainting and would undoubtedly not be the vision of Artemesia.
The Advancing Women Artists Federation, which was established as an American non-profit organisation in 2009, is committed to safeguarding Women’s Art and recuperating a vital part of Florence’s forgotten cultural and creative heritage, with a primary emphasis on restoration.
The Florence committee overall goal is to bring recognition to the achievements of Italian Women Artists , past and present, whose works are in Florence, through identifying , restoring and exhibiting their art.
I am honoured to be included in a group of talented women who share a passion for art and for encouraging the work of this wonderful Organisation.
As shown below in this allegorical fresco I found last week in the Villa di Poggio Imperiale, painted in the early 1600’s whilst the Villa was owned by the wife of Grand Duke Cosimo II, Maria Maddalena , -whose illustrious birth as the youngest daughter of Charles II, Archduke of Inner Austria, earned the Villa the additional name of “Imperiale”- women have often been symbolically portrayed in front of an easel, with sculpture, with musical instruments – even with architectural tools!
Now it is time to take their Artwork seriously.
Michael Palin’s In Search of Artemesia was shown on BBC Four on Monday night 28th December 2016. It featured his interview with Jane Fortune and the Artemesia Conference in Florence – even captured pictures of me and many of my friends!
If you have ever wondered why there are so few well known ladies who paint take a look at this documentary – still available on Catch up TV – and there is plenty more to discuss on the subject – watch this space!
