In Florence, numerous notable women working in government, the arts, patronage, literature and
philanthropy lived and worked in the Oltrarno and beyond, over the course of centuries. From
September to December 2023, lectures, tours, original artisanship, music, an exhibition and an original
video and photography catalogue form part of an events series, organised by The British Institute of
Florence, Il Palmerino Cultural Association and Calliope Arts, which spotlights past excellence and
modern-day creativity from a female perspective.
SCORING SUFFRAGE
September 29, 2023 at 6pm
Lecture / Violin and piano recital – Claudia Tobin, Ruth Palmer, Alessio Enea
Lyceum Club Internazionale di Firenze. Palazzo Adami Lami, Lungarno Guicciardini 17 – Florence
How did music score and underscore the swell of women’s increasing liberties at the turn of the
twentieth century? Writer and curator Claudia Tobin, with violinist Ruth Palmer and pianist Alessio
Enea, set out to uncover the musical sisterhood between a network of European women artists, writers
and music critics who took inspiration from Florence, including suffragette composer Dame Ethel
Smyth, her friend the writer and activist Vernon Lee frequented Villa San Francesco di Paola. Presented
at the Lyceum in Florence, of which these women were members, this event is part of a research grant
that connects archives in the UK and Florence, including at the Villa I Tatti Harvard Centre for
Renaissance Studies, Lyceum Club archive, the British Institute of Florence, Somerville College Oxford
and the British Library in the UK. Reservations required, seating limited:
linda@restorationconversations.org
FEMALE FORERUNNERS: ‘A ROOM OF THEIR OWN’
October 18, 2023 at 6pm
Lecture by Linda Falcone (online and on site)
British Institute of Florence, Wednesday Lecture Series. Lungarno Guicciardini 9 – Florence
Lecture admission: 12 euro, reservations recommended
Eleonora de Toledo’s purchase of the Pitti Palace – a sixteenth-century decision that triggered the
emergence of the Oltrarno artisan district – Vittoria della Rovere’s role in inspiring and supporting art
and craftsmanship at the Poggio Imperiale, Violante di Baviera’s cultural salon at Villa Lampeggi and
even Bianca Cappello’s unique palace on via Maggio. This talk explores the role of noblewomen and
how they were ‘influencers’ in their day. The ‘palazzo’ idea is not limited to aristocratic women involved
in governance, however. Felicie de Fauveau’s art atelier in via degli Serragli is a case in point. Details of
how to attend in person or online at Special Events - The British Institute of Florence
FROM BIANCA CAPPELLO TO THE BOBOLI’S GREENERY
October 21 (in English) at 4pm
Tour with Freya’s Florence Admission: 25 euro per person
Explore a female-run artisan workshop specialised in egg-yolk tempera and gold foil, courtesy of
Veronica Balzani in via Pandolfini, before crossing to the ‘other side of the river’, for a walk along via
Maggio, past the Palazzo di Bianca Cappello to Elizabeth Browning’s home, Casa Guidi. Visit the Boboli
Gardens inspired by Eleonora di Toledo and see the evocative grotta di Madama and the grotta di
Buontalenti, focusing on their connection to Bianca Cappello and Francesco I. To conclude, participants
will exit at the Annalena entrance of via Romana, for a quick trek through the Annalena Garden, linked
to the history of Domenican nuns. Reservations required: associazione@palmerino.it
Curator-led visit
FROM ISABELLA DE’ MEDICI TO EMMA BARDINI, VILLA CERRETO GUIDI
October 24, 2023 at 10.30am (in Italian)
Hosted by Villa La Petraia curator Giulia Coco. Admission free
Once a Medici hunting lodge, the villa was designed by Buontalenti by order of Cosimo I. It hosts
artworks by Lavinia Fontana and Angelica Kaufmann, but it is most famous for being gifted to
Cosimo I’s favourite daughter Isabella de’ Medici... it would ultimately become the site of her
murder, by husband Paolo Giordano I Orsini. Centuries later, in the 1900s, the villa became home
to the paintings of Emma Bardini. This collection of portraiture and still-life works reveal a lesser
known side of the woman who helped famed Oltrarno ‘antiques’ dealer Stefano Bardini make
international connections in the ‘Oltrarno ed oltre’. Reservations required:
PALACE WOMEN: PHOTOGRAPHY AND ARTISANS EXHIBITION
October 30 to December 15, 2023
Gruppo Fotografico Il Cupolone
Il Palmerino Cultural Association. Via del Palmerino 6 – Florence
Exhibition open Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays until December 15, from 3.30pm to 6.30pm
and by appointment
Ten women photographers from the award-winning Florentine cultural association Gruppo Fotografico
Il Cupolone capture the essence of the project ‘Palace Women: Oltrarno and Beyond’. Via photo
reportage or artistic images, the team is committed to the creation of a photographic archive spotlighting the modern-day creativity of artisans and art students who find inspiration in the Florence
palazzi (and gardens!) that female pioneers designed, developed and ‘populated’. From riverside to
countryside, they will start with Oltrarno sites and female-run workshops, before moving on to explore
villas in other districts, once home and haunt to powerful or creative women.
Participating artisans inspired by Vittoria della Rovere, Elizabeth Browning and the women of Villa
Petraia include Ilaria Ceccarelli and Ayako Nakamori (fabrics and natural chord), Kristie Mathieson
(grès) Jane Harman (wood), Andrew Stone (watercolor woodblock prints), Negar Azhar Azari and
Brenda Luize Roepke (jewelry). The exhibition will include a series of works inspired by Medici women
patrons, crafted during the Palace Women student grant programme at the Liceo Artistico Statale di
Porta Romana e Sesto Fiorentino, focused on papermaking, serigraphs and printing on textiles. The
exhibition opening includes the premiere of ‘Artisans and Palace Women’, a video by Florence-based
Russian video-maker Olga Makarova. Photographers: Alessandra Barrucchieri, Valentina Bellini, Sabina
Bernacchini, Cinzia Carmen Cardellicchio, Paola Curradi, Maria Grazia Dainelli, Cristina Garzone, Cecilia Franchi, Maria Laura Fineschi, Daniela Giampà , Sandra Lumini, Viola Parretti and Antonella Tomassi, curated by Simone Sabatini. Inauguration reservations for 6pm on October 30. For more
information and reservations: associazione@palmerino.it
Curator-led visit
PRINCESSES AND PIOUS WOMEN AT VILLA LA QUIETE
November 21, 2023 (in Eglish), 4pm
Hosted by Raffaele Niccoli Vallesi Villa la Quiete curator for Sistema Musei Ateneo . Admission free
Villa La Quiete – a favourite site of Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici (1667-1743), the last Medici heir – which also provided education opportunities for secular and religious women for centuries, including the Montalve congregation and their order’s founder Eleonora Ramirez de Montalvo (1602-1659).
Curator-led visit
FROM BALLROOM TO BOUDOIR, VILLA LA PETRAIA’S WOMEN
November 28, 2023 (in Italian), 3pm
Hosted by Villa La Petraia curator Giulia Coco. Admission free
Villa La Petraia, one of Tuscany’s most celebrated Medici villas, seen from the perspective of the many
women whose presence can be felt there, starting with Christina of Lorraine, to whom the villa was
given after her marriage to Grand Duke Ferdinando I in 1589. A glimpse of Medici women can be found
in the villa’s fresco cycle The Glories of the Medici, featuring notable figures like Catherine de’ Medici
(with daughters on her left) and Maria de’ Medici. In the 1800s, during Florence’s stint as capital, the
villa became a favourite of Rosa Vercellana, King Vittorio Emanuele’s morganatic wife, known as ‘La
Bella Rosina’. In her boudoir, expect rare pastels by 18th-century female artists, including Giovanna
Fratellini and Violante Siries Cerroti. For more information and reservations:
associazione@palmerino.it
PRE-RAPHAELITE ‘SISTERHOOD’ IN THE VILLAS OF BELLOSGUARDO
November 29 2023 at 6pm
Lecture by Francesca Baldry (online and on site)
British Institute of Florence, Wednesday Lecture Series. Lungarno Guicciardini 9 – Florence
Lecture admission: 12 euro, reservations recommended
Elizabeth Boott, whose alter ego Henry James captured in Portrait of a Lady, lived in Florence’s Villa
Castellani at Bellosguardo and her experience shines a light on the pre-Raphaelite ‘brotherhood’s’ female
perspective, as she and other ‘muses’ carved their space as painters in their own right when they sojourned
on the hills of Florence. Mary Spartali Stillman’s over 170 works illustrate how romanticizing ‘the
Renaissance’ was a marketable genre. Painter Evelyn De Morgan, also a Bellosguardo aficionado, was a
rebellious suffragette and spiritualist who produced some of the turn-of-the century’s most evocative angel images, while in Florence from 1895 to 1914. Their presence in the city and its outskirts in the second
half of the Nineteenth century, shaped the image of contemporary Florence. Details of how to attend in
person or online at Special Events - The British Institute of Florence
Participating institutions: Lyceum Club Internazionale di Firenze, Gruppo Fotografico Il Cupolone,
Intreccio Creativo, Liceo Artistico Statale di Porta Romana e Sesto Fiorentino, Villa Medicea La Petraia,
Villa Medicea Cerreto Guidi, Palazzo Spinelli.
BOOK PRESENTATION
December 4 , 2023, 6pm
Palace Women: Where Florence’s Women Made History
Il Palmerino Cultural Association. Via del Palmerino 6 – Florence
Family palaces, spiritual retreats, cultural salons, hunting lodges and garden oases – native and
adoptive Florentine women carved their place in history inside the venues they frequented: Villa La
Petraia, San Francesco di Paola, the Medici Villa of Poggio Imperiale, Villa di Cerreto Giudi, Casa Guidi
and Palazzo di Bianca Cappello. Join us for the presentation of an evocative photography book
featuring the collective works of 10 female photographers from Gruppo Fotografico Il Cupolone,
enhanced by the shared stories of scholars, artisans, musicians, historians and curators who give a
voice to pioneering women of the past (The Florentine Press, 2023). Free admission, reservations
required: associazione@palmerino.it
Project Coordinator: Linda Falcone, Restoration Conversations
Special thanks to donors Alice Vogler, Donna Malin, Margie MacKinnon and Wayne McArdle
This project is made possible thanks to the support of Enjoy, Respect and Feel Florence, funded by
Italy’s Ministry of Tourism, the Fund for Development and Cohesion, the Municipality of Florence and
Feel Florence.
Palace Women image: Virginie Houdet, Oltrarno Gaze, 2022
