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 Florence 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 Women Artists 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 Plautilla Nelli (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 Artemisia Gentileschi’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.