Provenance:

With Arte Antichità Giuseppina Spalasso Brusasca, Turin, Italy (according to a label on the reverse).
Private Collection, Italy.

In his Lives of the Artists, Giorgio Vasari reports that between her early work as an illuminator and the later large ecclesiastical paintings, Plautilla painted many small-scale works as private commissions: “And since this venerable and talented nun studied the art of miniature before she began to work on panels and important works, there are many lovely little works done by her hand now owned by a number of people [in Florence].” Vasari also writes: “For the homes of Florentine noblemen (gentil’ huomini), she did so many paintings that it would take too long to discuss them all.”[1] In summarizing the paintings by Plautilla that were known to him, it is striking that Vasari makes little to no mention of the women who must have been her primary patrons and audience.[2] Plautilla’s clientele likely included lay women in Florence, especially those with familial or religious ties to the convent of Santa Caterina da Siena, as well as fellow Dominican nuns residing there.

Among the few surviving archival records of the convent, Catherine Turrill Lupi recently discovered an inventory detailing the funds and items that were to be given to a young woman entering Santa Caterina da Siena, including a small religious painting.[3] After recommending a sculpted crucifix and its tabernacle, the author lists: “Una Vergine in un quadro di ½ braccio con santi a suo bene placimento” (“A painting measuring half a braccio of the Virgin Mary with saints of one’s own choosing”). The measurement of a braccio equaled approximately 58 centimeters, and a half a braccio 29 centimeters, which accords with the height of a number of Plautilla’s small-scale panels, including several presented in this exhibition. Part of Nelli’s artistic output must have focused on supplying works on this scale for novices  at her convent, and perhaps to nuns at Dominican convents in neighboring cities as well. They would have been equally appealing as private devotional works to devout women outside of the order.

Here, as in many of Plautilla’s paintings, the prominent placement of female saints in the foreground, each clutching a martyr’s palm and with the instrument of their martyrdom visible, suggests the intended female audience. Catherine is at the left, a fragment of her iconic wheel behind her, while Ursula’s arrow pierces her chest. Behind them stands Saint Joseph with his blossoming staff at left, while at right Saint John the Baptist wears his hair shirt and holds a reed cross. The saints encircle a monumental figure of the Virgin Mary holding the Christ child. All these elements are described with clarity and undeniable charm.

Although this painting exceeds the size recommended in the documents, it is tempting to consider that this work might have been owned by a nun at Plautilla’s convent. An old inscription on the reverse, “Sª Mª Francª,” perhaps records its original owner, an unidentified Suora Maria Francesca (Fig. 1).

[1] Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of Artists, trans. Julia Conway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella, Oxford, 1991, p. 342.

[2] Ibid. Vasari only briefly mentions two of Nelli’s female patrons: Marietta de Fedini and “the wife of Signor Mondragone the Spaniard.”

[3] Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Corporazioni religiosi soppresi dal governo francese (CRSGF) 106, n. 80, file n. 1, “Inventari attenenti alle monache di S. Caterina.” The entry appears within the “Inventario di quello deve dare una fanciulla che si fa monacha in Sta. Cat. a da Siena.

Technical Images