Saturday, March 18th on Zoom
10am Los Angeles and Phoenix, 1pm NY & Toronto, 5pm London, 6pm Florence
Casa Buonarroti, the Florentine museum dedicated to the memory of Michelangelo, has embarked on the restoration of Artemisia Gentileschi’s Allegory of Inclination (1616), one of the first paintings the artist created during her 7-year sojourn in Florence. Project Coordinator Linda Falcone discusses the painting for which Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) was paid three times what her fellow painters earned for their own works on the gallery ceiling. Artemisia’s painting, produced the same year as her acceptance to Europe’s first drawing Academy, depicts an allegorical figure, ‘the inclination to produce art.’ It was originally painted nude, only to be censored in the 1680s with the addition of carefully-positioned drapery and veils. This conservation project, dubbed ‘Artemisia UpClose’, and co-funded by the British nonprofit Calliope Arts and British philanthropist Christian Levett, will use modern diagnostic and imaging technologies to digitally discover what the painting looked like as Artemisia created it. Inclination represents Artemisia’s debut into Florentine society, and it continues to spark discussion today about Artemisia’s so-called “Florentine identity,” her painterly techniques, and the life of a censored painting, which is soon to be revealed via contemporary restoration technology.
Linda Falcone is creator, presenter, and managing editor of the magazine and livestream series Restoration Conversations, and a consultant for Calliope Arts. In that role, she is Project Coordinator of the Artemisia UpCloseproject. She was a founding director of the organization Advancing Women Artists, and served in that role from its founding in 2009 until its closure in 2021. Linda is the co-author of several books with Jane Fortune that spotlighted the quest to uncover lost art by women from the Renaissance and beyond, two of which were featured in PBS documentaries. Linda’s books include, Italians Dance and I’m a Wallflower and If They Are Roses: The Italian Way with Words. Linda’s first novel, Moving Days, was published in 2014. Linda has appeared in several TV art documentaries including the BBC’s The Story of Women and Art, Feltrinelli TV’s Monuments Women, and When the World Answered: Women Artists and the 1966 Flood (2015), a PBS production based on a book she co-authored. More recently, in 2021, she was artistic consultant for the television program Renaissance Women Restored, on the conservation of Plautilla Nelli’s Last Supper, which was seen on American Public Television.
To RSVP: Paola50122@gmail.com
Minimum suggested donation: $20
This talk is free for Friends of Paola's Studiolo!
Look forward to seeing you on Zoom!
Warmest regards,
Paola
