INTERVIEW WITH...Jane Fortune

ane Fortune is a woman whose book, and then having the opportunity one was familiar with her. She fascinated deep love for led to to actually see it in the flesh made me and I made a personal commitment Emmy award her championing the ‘invisible’ a profound impact on me. Viewing to become her voice. Almost 430 years winner, author female painters of that city. Michelangelo’s David in person was a after her life, I would give her the voice and philanthropist, And by finding a voice for those moment I will never forget. (I do have to she never fully had. I wanted to uncover Jforgotten artists, she also found her own. mention that during my year in Florence, the hidden side of Florence’s historical art Jane Fortune is also Here we find out a little more about this not one female artist was mentioned). scene and make Nelli and other little- extraordinary woman. known works by women, visible. the founder of the Who is your favourite artist? In 2006, Nelli’s Lamentation with Saints, Advancing Women Tell us a little about Jane Fortune My favourite male artist is Italian in the San Marco Museum’s large refectory before being the Cultural Editor of The Mannerist painter Jacopo Pontormo became the first piece we restored. Artists Foundation Florentine and founding the Advancing (1494-1557). I love his contorted, Over the last nine years, we have which restores Foundation (AWA). intertwined poses, swirling, restored five other paintings by Nelli I lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for elongated figures and his distorted as well as nine of her drawings! When forgotten paintings 26 years and besides being a very perspective. His figures seem to float, we first discovered Nelli, only three of by female artists in involved mother, chauffeur and major without any concern for gravity. And her works had been authenticated. This cheerleader at the myriad activities his vivid colors are glorious! My favourite number included Lamentation with Florence. Matilda my children were involved in, I was is his Visitation (1528-1529) in the Saints, even though, according to Vasari, Hickson meets the a dedicated volunteer at the Pennsylvania Church of San Francesco e Michele in she had painted prodigiously. She has Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), the Carmignano, a town west of Florence. I captured the heart and soul of anyone woman who is making oldest American Art museum and art love its intense, contrasting colors that involved in the restoration of her works so much happen school in the United States. I was a glow, (yellow, chartreuse, magenta, bright and has become our guiding force. The member of PAFA’s Board of Trustees and raw emotional power Nelli captures was on the museum’s Women’s Board for on canvas and her eye for the smallest many years, serving as its president for of details are gifts to the viewer. Her four years. Each time a piece is restored, painterly hand tugs at my heart strings! In 1992, while a Women’s Board member, I co-founded, organized and it’s brought back to life. Why did you start the AWA? chaired an art fair called US Artists, Fine The decision to support the restoration Art Show and Sale, to which the most Finally, after centuries, it’s of Lamentation with Saints was the prestigious dealers in American Art were first step in my growing quest to invited to exhibit and sell their works. given its rightful place in protect and preserve forgotten works From the beginning, an integral part of by women. In order to do this, I created US Artists was a program I founded for Florence’s cultural history and the foundation with the mission of people with special needs. The goal was to rediscovering a vital part of Florence’s make museum art more accessible to exhibited on a museum wall. forgotten cultural and creative heritage. people with disabilities. It includes touch Our goal is to identify, restore and tours for the blind, ASL translators for I feel very humbled to play a exhibit art by women that’s hidden and the hearing impaired and docent-led languishing in Florence’s storehouses. tours of the show for visitors who are small part in giving each artist Innumerable of works have been physically challenged. It was the first overlooked for centuries. Many are in such program at any national arts fair. a voice need of restoration. From the outgrowth of this program, the pink and sea foam green). And though Women’s Board established PAFA’s first somewhat unsettling, I love the two faces How does it feel to be restoring these ‘lost’ Special Needs Scholarship Endowment in the background staring at the viewer paintings by women artists? Fund for a student with disabilities to and how their features replicate those of Each time a piece is restored, it’s brought attend PAFA’s art school. the main characters. Pontormo’s works back to life. Finally, after centuries, it’s I was also the former volunteer are simply magnificent. given its rightful place in Florence’s chairman and CEO of the Deafness My favourite female artist is Suor cultural history and exhibited on a Research Foundation (DRF), which (Florence, 1524-1588) She museum wall. I feel very humbled to play was in New York City. It is now called is the first recognized woman painter of a small part in giving each artist a voice. the Hearing Health Foundation and Florence, yet she is virtually unknown in In many cases, their voices have never is dedicated, as DRF was, to the the art world. She was a Dominican nun been heard before. prevention of hearing loss and research and one of two women mentioned in aimed at finding its cure. Vasari’s Lives of Artists (1568): ‘And in the What has been your best or favourite Interview with... houses of gentlemen throughout Florence AWA project? Have you always been interested in art? there are so many of her pictures, it would Besides any of Suor Plautilla Nelli’s My junior year abroad in Florence, be tedious to attempt to speak of them.’ paintings, I’d say that discovering Italy first inspired my serious, life-long Thirteen years ago, I chanced upon ’s David and love affair with art. Studying a piece in a book about Nelli and when I asked Bathsheba was particularly exciting. We Jane Fortune class, which started as just a picture in a Florentines about her, I found that no restored it in 2008, after it had been

Timeless • Winter 2015 43 Travels INTERVIEW WITH... Jane Fortune INTERVIEW WITH...Jane Fortune Jane at the unveiling of Nelli’s restored Saint Catherine problem’ and give these historic women works was like opening a package at idea just how I would do that. I truly fell an artistic venue to call their own. I’m not Christmas and discovering the joy in in love with the city’s cultural heritage, necessarily talking about a museum - I each one. To be able to write about its architecture, Renaissance art and its simply mean a venue dedicated to the these invisible women artists, to make monuments. I was enchanted by the food, permanent public display of women’s art. them visible is exhilarating. The book the glorious salmon pink sunsets, the It’d have to be a space that the state or city spotlights over 140 works by women people, the monasteries, refectories would be willing to lease, give or loan to exhibited in Florence’s museums and and cloisters filled with breathtakingly AWA for this specific purpose, since the includes an extensive inventory, listing beautiful frescoes, the palazzi, the Church works we restore are public property. The the over 2000 works of art unseen in the of Santa Croce, the Medici… I could go on sheer volume of paintings and sculptures museum storages. The book became and on and on. Florence fills my soul with in storage call for it! the basis for a documentary produced great joy and happiness and this is why I by PBS, American Public Broadcasting love it. Tell us about your association with The System, and the documentary won a Florentine newspaper. How did that coveted EMMY in 2013! If you could pick your favourite begin? archaeological site anywhere in the world About ten years ago, my life partner Bob What area do you enjoy travelling to that you have visited, what would it be Hesse and I were having lunch with the most? What is your favourite country? and what makes it stand out for you? then co-owner of The Florentine and I We love Italy, of course, and for over 20 I’d say Ephesus and the House of the was telling her that I get so many requests years have lived in Florence part-time. Virgin Mary. The house is described Jane with life-partner Bob Hesse and from friends coming to Florence, who We also love Istanbul and Southeast Asia, as a modest chapel made of stones. It film maker Franco Zeffirelli ask what to see, where to eat, etc. She particularly Singapore and the Maldives. dates back to the Apostolic Age and it’s said, ‘Why don’t you write a newspaper If you haven’t been to the Maldives, run the space where the Virgin Mary was column about these places that are special there…don’t walk. I’d tell anyone to go believed to have spent her last days. It’s a to you, and we will call it “Jane’s Gems”’. before the islands disappear. They’re sacred and holy place and, the serenity of (I still am writing it, once a month.) That breathtakingly beautiful. its interior is what stood out the most to I believe you established the Indianapolis column began my writing career with The me—it’s a place that makes one want to City Ballet in 2008. Do you have a great languishing in storage in the Pitti Palace to hang the works. The foundation will Florentine. From these columns (which What has been your best travelling reflect and pray. love of ballet? What made you consider for 363 years. not restore a painting unless we have the are a page in length) came my first book adventure? doing such a thing? guarantee that it will be exhibited on a To Florence, Con Amore: 77 Ways to Istanbul. With its minarets and the What do you like to read while you are When Bob and I moved back to Tell us about the latest restoration museum wall. Why fund a restoration, Love the City. When it sold out in 2011, muezzins’ call to prayer, it’s a magical travelling? Indianapolis in 2005, their ballet company project. if the piece returns to storage, never to be we published a longer second edition: place where the East meets the West. Its I usually read books about the place(s) had gone bankrupt. Upon learning There are two we’re working on currently. seen again? Available space is very hard To Florence, Con Amore: 90 Ways to layers of history unfold, much like the we are visiting, so to have an overview of that Bob was the former executive director The first is Violante Siries Cerroti’s (1709- to come by in the Florence museums. Love the City. The unique thing about unpeeling of an onion. Being there is an the history, and particularly the art, there. of the Joffrey Ballet, a group came to him 1783) large-scale work depicting the Virgin Because of a lack of space, AWA has had the column is that I’ve always had extraordinary experience. The Greeks, I am always seeking out works of art by and asked if he would put together a Mary presenting the Christ Child to to say ‘no’ to some restoration projects. carte blanc to write about whatever I’d the Persians, the Romans, and Venetians women in any city we visit! I also like to regional ballet company. He declined, Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi, a Florentine like. The Florentine Press, part of The ruled before the Ottomans took control read mysteries set in the places we see. but said if they wanted an international noblewoman who was sainted in 1669. Have you thought about having your own Florentine, has also designed and for 500 years. Istanbul’s rich history can company, he would do it. The painting was damaged in Florence’s museum or space where you can display published my books. be revealed in very corner of the city. Who is your favourite travel author? That was the birth of the Indianapolis 1966 flood and exemplifies the popularity all these fabulous paintings by women Think of its archaeological remains and I do not have a favourite travel author, City Ballet (ICB). Bob is its founder and of local female saints in the seventeenth artists? You have written a number of books. monuments, like the Hagia Sophia and its but I love books by Jason Goodwin, about chairman and I am the vice-chairman. century. It is being restored by Florence- My dream and ultimate goal is to find ‘a Which has been your favourite one to dome, or the Topkapi Palace, its mosque Istanbul and Turkey, and his Inspector ICB does not have a ballet company based conservators Elizabeth Wicks and space of their own’ in Florence. I’ve been write, and why? complexes, the Chora Church and its Yashim mysteries set in Istanbul. per se, but it annually produces a gala Nicoletta Fontani. talking about this for years. It’s not an My favourite book to write was Invisible bedazzling mosaics. Then, there’s the Christobel Kent also writes mysteries called ‘Evening with the Stars’, where The project is expected to be finished easy goal, but it is an indispensable one. Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence, Blue Mosque and museums like the Pera (Sandro Cellini series) set in Florence, the best ballet dancers from across the in the spring of 2016 and returned to the It would solve the city’s ‘lack of space because finding each of these ‘lost’ and the Istanbul Modern or the Sakip as does Magdalen Naab in her Marshal world come and perform classical and sanctuary of Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Sabanci Museum. There is nothing like Guarnacci series. contemporary pieces. In one evening, Pazzi Church. Our second project is Maria Istanbul’s distinct skyline, its exotic spice Both of these authors capture the you can see the ‘best of the best’ dancers Van Oosterwych’s (1630-1693) Flowers, bazaar with its fragrant, intensely-colored essence of contemporary Florence. R.W.B. in the world perform! Once a month, Fruit and Insects which hung in a closed Jane interviews Michael Palin for spices and oh, so much more - it is a city Lewis’ ‘ode to Florence’ is another the ICB also hosts Master Classes, in The Florentine newspaper part of the Palatine Galley at the Pitti that excites you at every turn! wonderfully compelling book called which national and international ballet Palace. Purchased by Cosimo II de’ Medici The City of Florence: Historical Vistas professionals teach aspiring ballerinas on one of his trips to the Netherlands, Why do you love Italy so much? and Personal Sightings (1995). Another from this area. Last year, the ICB it reflects her style which places still life I fell in love with Florence as soon as classic is Mary McCarthy’s The Stones of started an annual international ballet bouquets against dark backgrounds. Once I stepped off the train at the Santa Florence (1959). It’s her unique tribute competition; it brings students from all restored, the painting will be exhibited Maria Novella Station in Florence, in to the city and she combines history, art over the world to Indianapolis, to compete in a room at the Pitti that is open to the 1962. As I said before, I spent my junior and social observation. There are so many for coveted scholarships to attend ballet public. year abroad there. I knew instinctively, good books written about Florence; it is schools around the world. at that very moment, that I had come very difficult to select just a few! Since Is it true that some of the paintings home. That year changed my life - and I need to do so much research for my Why do you feel so strongly about making you have restored have gone back into when I left, I made a promise to myself own books, I tend to read mysteries, for art accessible to people with special storage? that I would come back and give back pleasure. I love to read and always have a needs? The museums where AWA has restored to Florence, for it had given so much book in my hands. I have always done volunteer work with paintings have all found walls on which to me. At the time, of course, I had no people with special needs, and frequently

44 Timeless • Winter 2015 Timeless • Winter 2015 45 Travels Travels INTERVIEW WITH... Jane Fortune

...in order to champion these forgotten women artists, I had to speak up... In the process of being the voice for these ‘invisible’ women artists, I also found my own voice

Nicoletta Fontani and Elizabeth Wicks at work on the Siries Cerroti restoration

saw how difficult it was for them to PBS documentary, When the World give the wrong answer and look foolish. interact, particularly in art museums. Answered, premiered in Florence at So I never spoke up very much (I listened) This was particularly true before the the Odeon Theatre in October, and in and was terrified to speak in front of Americans with Disabilities Act (1990): Indianapolis on November 10). groups. My first book was published when Simple things were needed like having If someone were to have told me I was 65 years old (I am now 73). From signers available for the deaf or placing that I’d become a driving force in that moment on, in order to champion descriptions next to the pictures in restoring unseen works of art by these forgotten women artists, I had to Braille, or providing entrance ramps and women in Florence (where I am speak up. And, I love it! In the process of bathrooms to accommodate wheelchairs. known as ‘Indiana Jane’), I would have being the voice for these invisible women For almost every museum board I answered: ‘Who exactly is this woman artists, I also found my own voice. These have sat on, I’ve tried to bring about you’re talking about?’ Another profound days, just try and take the microphone changes aimed at making art accessible experience was when I was awarded an away from me! to everyone. After the ADA was passed, honorary degree from Indiana University many of these issues were resolved, but, in Bloomington, Indiana, becoming What is next for you? many buildings that have been declared a Doctor of Humane Letters, for my There are more ‘invisible’ works to find, historical landmarks, for example, are not philanthropic contributions. more books to write, more restorations completely compliant. There is a lot of to be done and more documentaries to work still to be done! Tell us something we don’t know about be created. I want to continue as long as Jane Fortune. I can, to make these ‘invisible’ works by What would you say is your greatest I was a shy person, who always sat in the women artists, ‘visible’, so these women achievement? very last row of the classroom, hoping not can be celebrated. We need to finally Raising two wonderful children whose to be called on for I was so scared I would reclaim both their past and future. giving spirits, values and ethics I am very proud of. Jane with co- You have done many things in your life so author, Linda far – what has been your best experience? Falcone, who is I have had several, but the best was also the Director meeting Bob Hesse. He and I have of the AWA in been together 25 years and without Florence his encouragement and steadfast belief in me, I would never have been able to do what I am doing now. I wouldn’t have believed you, if you’d said to me ten years ago that I’d become the author of five books, two of which have been made into PBS documentaries for American Public Television. (Invisible Women, Forgotten Artists of Florence won an EMMY in 2013 and the latest

46 Timeless • Winter 2015 Travels