The Curators’ Quaderno - The Search for Violante

the

curators’

quaderno

THE SEARCH

FOR VIOLANTE

Research and restoration

at the Certosa di Firenze monastery

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the

curators’

quaderno

colophon

THE SEARCH FOR VIOLANTE

Research and restoration

at the Certosa di Firenze monastery

Publication sponsor AWA Legacy Fund and Calliope Arts Foundation

Publisher The Florentine Press

tcq series editor Linda Falcone

Book design Marco Badiani

Book layout Leo Cardini

Photographers Marco Badiani, Ottaviano Caruso, Olga Makarova

Printer Cartografica Toscana

ISBN 978-88-97696-38-4

2025 B’Gruppo Srl, Prato

First Edition: June 2025

Series: The Curators’ Quaderno

© Calliope Arts Foundation

All rights reserved

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Printed in Florence, Italy

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“Undisturbed silence has characterised the vast Certosa

di Firenze charterhouse, since its construction in 1341, as

home of the Carthusian monks. The artwork displayed in

this fortress-like structure, made strong by contemplation

not weaponry, could represent lifetimes of labour for a

team of endlessly patient restorers. As part of the project

‘Accademia Women: Violante’, conservators Marina Vincenti

and Elizabeth Wicks spent one year with the only woman

in the place – eighteenth-century painter Violante Siriès

– whose Reading Madonna is displayed above the altar,

in what may well be the smallest chapel off the cloister,

adjacent to the prior’s tiny bedroom. Despite its dire need

for restoration, the Cappella del priore is a pastel-hued

Rococo gem and the Siriès altar piece is an ode to daily

work and devotion, but as modern women, we cannot help

but revel in the message between the lines: its protagonist

is a literate woman seeking knowledge, independently.”

Linda Falcone

‘Accademia Women’ coordinator

“Inspired by the leadership of AWA founder Jane Fortune,

Advancing Women Artists foregrounded and restored 70

artworks by women artists in Florence’s museums, in its

13 years of existence. These women’s art spanned four

centuries. Their salvaged paintings or sculptures and

the original research that emerged with each project’s

completion continues to be an important legacy for art

lovers and scholars alike. The AWA Legacy Fund was

created upon the organisation’s closure in 2020, thanks to

support from its Board of Directors. Our partnership with

Syracuse University in Florence and the Accademia delle

Arti del Disegno has focused on three paintings attributed

to Violante Siriès (1709–1783). For all those involved, these

small paintings are like standards of an enduring dream: to

safeguard art by women for posterity.”

Nancy Galliher

Advancing Women Artists

Former president

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“In the magnificent setting of Florence’s

Carthusian Monastery, heartfelt and

due recognition is being given to

painter Violante Siriès, thanks to an

initiative coordinated by Linda Falcone,

and supported by an extraordinary,

predominantly female team. On behalf of

the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, a

partner in the project, I’d like to express

my gratitude towards its donors, who

support research and restoration aimed

at deepening the knowledge of artworks

authored by women and ensuring their

preservation, since, all too often, female

artists are misunderstood by official

historiography governed by men.

Like many women artists in past centuries,

Violante was figlia d’arte – art ran in her

family, as her father headed the prestigious

semi-precious stones’ workshop started

by the Medici in 1588, and continued by

the Lorraine. Nonetheless, she was able to

forge her own artistic personality and gain

an autonomous professional status, which

earned her acceptance into the Accademia

delle Arti del Disegno.

A perceptive and graceful portraitist of

the noble class, she proves herself to be

a highly sensitive interpreter of sacred

art, bringing us refined and compact

depictions of women.”

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Cristina Acidini

President of the Accademia delle Arti

del Disegno, Florence

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Certosa di Firenze,

large cloister

Ph. Marco Badiani

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“For these commissions, Violante Siriès gained access to

an extremely private all-male environment, a monastery,

and that feat should not be taken for granted. Violante

would have been no more than 30 years old when she

painted her Reading Madonna. She was a married woman

– with children – and a working professional. Let’s not take

that for granted either! The artist’s success is indicative

of the city’s dynamic social climate in a period usually

considered the twilight of Florentine culture (mid-1730s

to mid-1760s) with the death of Gian Gastone de’ Medici

and the advent of the Regency period, when Florence’s

new foreign ruler, Francis Stephen of Lorraine, opted to

stay in Vienna rather than establish a court in Florence.

Violante didn’t work under the auspices of a Grand

Duchess, like Giovanna Fratellini before her. Yet, the lower

echelons of Florentine nobility threw parties, hosted

salons, organised art exhibitions and held festivals – all

potential occasions in which to garner commissions.

This period also saw the burgeoning of the English

Community in Florence – comprised of English speakers

of all nationalities – and Violante achieved considerable

acclaim in the Grand Tour circuit. Her time is one of

the lesser-studied eras in Florentine history – yet her

contemporaries laid the foundations of the modern era,

and within that context, she played a significant role.”

Giulia Coco

Curator and art historian

Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze

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Violante Siriès’ Reading Madonna

pre-restoration in raking light

Right: The painting

post-restoration

Phs. Ottaviano Caruso

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“At the start of our project, the paintings were covered

by a thick layer of dirt and candle-smoke deposits. The

wooden frames of all three paintings had been nailed

directly to the front of their canvases. The Reading

Madonna had over 30 nail holes of varying sizes in the

paint layer. The corners of the canvas were badly frayed

and the paint was actively flaking, and the same is true

in many other areas of the painting. We found four larger

tears in the canvas, three of which had been patched

from the reverse. The patches were made of fine pink

cloth formerly used in book repair, carefully applied

with vegetable glue. These may have been the work

of the monastery, which once specialised in book and

manuscript conservation. Paint losses were evident

around the tears, concealed from the front by fills and

clumsy repainting.

The most severe paint loss was the Madonna’s hands,

most likely damaged when a large bronze crucifix fell off

the chapel altar and into the painting. The damage and

the subsequent repaint – which was itself flaking away –

are visible in the only extant photo we found, which dates

before 1994.

After diagnostic photography and paint analysis of micro

samples, the cleaning of the thick layers of dirt and

smoke deposits was carried out using a mild anionic

surfactant. The layers of yellowed natural resin varnish

dating from the previous restoration were removed with

diluted solvent solutions, monitoring the process under

magnification and in UV light. The repaints and fills were

removed with solvent gels and the use of small scalpels.

During this process, we discovered original paint

underneath the repaints, which aided in reconstructing

the Madonna’s hands.”

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Elizabeth Wicks

Conservator

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During the cleaning process,

conservators removed the

overpaint from the damaged area

of the Madonna’s hands to reveal

the surviving original paint

Ph. Olga Makarova

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Next page:

Conservators’ tracing of paint

losses helped to reconstruct

the damaged area

“After filling the paint losses,

retouching was carried out using

gouache colours and pure pigments

ground in non-yellowing varnish. The

retouching on the Madonna’s hands

remains identifiable as restoration,

when viewed close-up. We used

relief mapping of the paint loss and

compared the figure’s hands with other

paintings by Siriès.”

Ph. Marco Badiani

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Elizabeth Wicks

Conservator

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“In the Hebrew tradition, the first

fundamental element of prayer is the

act of listening. Listening is prayer. The

Reading Madonna is engaged in prayer,

using Scripture. She ‘compares’ what

she is experiencing in her own life to

what she finds in Scripture, as if these

sacred texts were a mirror.”

Don Bernardo Artusi

San Leolino Community

Certosa di Firenze

“The Madonna’s pin cushion is more

readable post-restoration, and we

can clearly see her sewing needle,

which is symbolic, but not only.

Technically, it was proof of the artist’s

skills – because to paint a needle, you

have to have a deft hand. In the mind

of today’s viewers, this lovely detail

brings the Madonna into the realm of

the everyday, as a woman who has set

her sewing aside, although that was

certainly not Siriès’ intention, because

she was painting her commission for

the monastery. That needle, which

represents daily work, invites the

viewer to contemplate the Madonna

in all of her humanity, without

undermining her divine status.”

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Graziella Cirri

Art historian and SABAP curator

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The first lines of the

Madonna’s open prayer book

are in Hebrew lettering. These

letters are random and do not

refer to actual biblical verses

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“The ‘Search for Violante’ has all the hallmarks of an AWA

project. It unites talented and dedicated women from

a range of fields who deploy their expertise to shine a

spotlight on the female side of Florence’s artistic history:

the artist who brought a uniquely female perspective

to her subject and whose mastery of painting earned

her a place in the world’s oldest drawing academy; the

restorers whose painstaking application of the myriad

techniques of conservation restored the luminosity of

centuries-old paintings; the scholars whose archival

research uncovered the details of the artist’s life and

the social and political context in which she worked; the

cultural administrators who appreciated the importance

of filling the lacunae left when women’s stories are

omitted from the official record; the photographers who

documented the process of restoration from the initial

examination of the canvas to the return of the work to the

monastery wall; the educators and interns who became

part of the cycle of passing on knowledge of onceforgotten

works; the patrons whose generosity made

it all possible; and, behind the scenes, a ‘conduttrice

d’orchestra’ who kept the players working in concert to

realise this beautiful project. Brava to one and all.”

Margie MacKinnon

Co-founder of Calliope Arts Foundation

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The Saint Catherine

restoration during the

cleaning phase

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Saint Catherine restored to

her original dignity

Ph. Ottaviano Caruso

“This small-scale depiction of Saint Catherine of Alexandria

is especially significant, considering the painstaking

attention given to the rendering of fabrics and jewellery, a

hallmark feature of Violante Siriès. The artist’s meticulous

attention is evident in Saint Catherine’s delicate veil,

whose border is embellished with gold embroidery. It

covers Catherine’s head, fastened in place by the weight of

her crown, encrusted with tiny pearls and precious stones.

The Virgin’s headdress is made of heavier fabric, which

becomes lighter and more transparent as it falls over her

shoulders. A skilled portraitist, especially for women of

noble and aristocratic extraction, Siriès is remembered

by her contemporaries as a ‘good imitator of the real’,

through her use of colour, her correct rendering of natural

expressions and different attitudes, and through the

ornamentation of rich robes, embroidery, fine lace, velvet,

brocade, cloth, and all manner of clothing (Moücke, 1762).”

Giulia Coco

Curator and art historian

Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze

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“Without restoration, these three devotional works would never have

reached the public eye. If art is unseen and unknown, it does not

‘exist’ in the collective consciousness, which is true of all artwork not

universally recognised. This project creates a virtuous circle and its

purpose is twofold: to restore three works to their original dignity and

to spark public interest so that people will start asking themselves, ‘Are

there other works by Violante Siriès waiting to be found? How many

treasures are hiding at the Certosa di Firenze monastery?’ Questions

such as these are equally relevant in thousands of private and public

cultural venues throughout Italy. These restored paintings are the first

step in a long journey at the monastery, as the public sees artwork

attributed to Violante and gains greater knowledge of her life and

oeuvre. In this way, her contributions to the art world will enter our

hearts, as we explore the plethora of little-known devotional works that

form part of Tuscany’s artistic fabric and the cultural context in which

masterpieces of worldwide acclaim were created.”

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Graziella Cirri

Art historian and curator

Superintendency for Archaeology, Fine Art and Landscape for the

Metropolitan City of Florence and the Provinces of Pistoia and Prato

(SABAP)

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Saint Agnes

Smoothing down fillings

of paint loss

Ph. Olga Makarova

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“Observation under magnification and diagnostic

photography of Reading Madonna confirm a painting

technique very similar to that of The Madonna

Presents the Christ Child to Santa Maria Maddalena

dei Pazzi, a large altarpiece painted by Siriès in 1767

and restored in 2015-16. During that AWA-sponsored

project, we examined numerous paintings by the

artist. The brushstrokes, use of colour, canvas

preparation and even the adhesion problems in the

paint layers of Reading Madonna are consistent with

her oeuvre and with the previous work restored.

The style and brushwork of Saint Catherine shows

many stylistic and technical similarities with Siriès’

other work. However, Saint Agnes appears to be by a

different artist altogether. Both the stretcher and the

canvas type are different in the two ovals, which is

unusual, if they were prepared or ordered by the same

artist. The brushwork is quick and loosely executed,

compared to the careful, meticulous rendering of

details in the other two paintings. The strokes that

create shadows and light on Agnes’ face are much

more defined than those used in modelling the faces

of Catherine and the Madonna. The extreme cracking

of the paint on Saint Agnes also points to probable

differences in the painting’s execution.

While not providing definitive answers to the

authorship of the ovals, our project has taken us

one step further in the exploration of Violante Siriès’

oeuvre. We’re happy to be able to add another piece

of the puzzle to our understanding of this intriguing

artist, and to preserve her paintings for generations

to come.”

Elizabeth Wicks

Conservator

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“Saint Agnes was severely damaged by

the gradual but continuous movement

of the canvas support, which resulted in

the embrittlement of its glue and gesso

ground layers, causing conspicuous

craquelure on the painted surface.

Darkened by atmospheric deposits, these

cracks interfered with the painting’s visual

integrity and the viewer’s perception of

its colour scheme, preventing a precise

reading of the work’s technical and

stylistic features.”

Marina Vincenti

26Conservator

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Saint Agnes,

before and after

Ph. Ottaviano Caruso

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Conservator Elizabeth Wicks

restores oval frames, which

were varnished silver leaf.

Gold leaf was used for The

Reading Madonna’s frame.

Next page: Funori gel

strengthens the canvases’

cellulose fibres, allowing

them to relax so that

paintings can be pulled into

greater tension, in order to

minimise distortions

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Phs. Olga Makarova

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“The canvas support of Saint Agnes was restored following removal

of the layers of atmospheric deposits, soot, and discoloured varnish

from the paint film. During this process, the original canvas fibres

were toned and relaxed by applying purified Funori algae gel – a

natural consolidant – to the work’s reverse. To fully achieve cohesion

between the layers, a synthetic consolidant was subsequently applied

and the painting was placed in a semi-rigid vacuum envelope using a

thermal mat to provide controlled heat and pressure. Only after filling

in the work’s small lacunae and completing varnishing and pictorial

reintegration, did the painting’s technical and stylistic characteristics

emerge and become clearly recognisable. Saint Agnes is a very

quickly executed painting that was crafted with confidence, using

liquid colour, applied in glazes. The artist’s style is very different from

the minute and highly refined works of Violante Siriès, who has the

controlled hand of a classic, largely academic painter.”

Marina Vincenti

Conservator

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The ‘Accademia Women’

team remounts the restored

artworks inside the Prior’s

Chapel at Certosa di Firenze

Phs. Marco Badiani

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“Violante Siriès was trained by pastelist

Giovanna Fratellini and, in turn, she

taught other women like Violante Ferroni

and Maria Hadfield Cosway. Violante

would be pleased with the project’s

university-level internships, in which

today’s professionals passed their knowhow

on to a new generation of women,

continuing the artist’s efforts to convey

knowledge to her younger female peers.”

Sasha Perugini

Director of Syracuse University Florence

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Photo credits

P. 2-3: Self-portrait, Violante Siriès, Uffizi Gallery,

Florence

Pp. 4-5: Certosa di Firenze monastery,

ph. Olga Makarova

Pp. 9-10: The Reading Madonna protected by facing

paper to secure raised and flaking paint,

ph. Olga Makarova

P. 14: Filling paint losses toned to the colour of the

preparation layer, ph. Olga Makarova

Pp. 16-17: Details of the Madonna’s book,

phs. Ottaviano Caruso, Marco Badiani

Pp. 18-19: Marina Vincenti applies re-touching

varnish, ph. Olga Makarova

P. 20: Cleaning Saint Catherine,

ph. Olga Makarova;

P. 22: Attaching synthetic canvas to the painting’s

edges prior to re-stretching, ph. Olga Makarova

P. 32: Elizabeth Wicks with intern Luna Gordon in

the Prior’s Chapel, ph. Marco Badiani

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The restoration and awareness-raising project

featured in this edition of tcq, known as ‘Accademia

Women: Violante’, was organised by the Accademia

delle Arti del Disegno (AADFI) and Syracuse

University in Florence, and sponsored by the

Advancing Women Artists Legacy Fund. The

project involved the restoration of three paintings

attributed to eighteenth-century artist Violante

Siriès Cerroti at the monastery of San Lorenzo al

Monte in Galluzzo (Certosa di Firenze) and included

a grant for research and video documentation.

This publication comprises reflections on project

goals and findings, presented at the seminar for

sector experts and the general public at the AADFI

on 3 June 2025.

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The support of seven women made this legacy

project possible: Connie Clark, Pam Fortune,

Nancy Galliher, Nancy Hunt, Donna Malin, Margie

MacKinnon and Alice Vogler. With special thanks to

the Superintendency for Archaeology, Fine Art and

Landscape for the Metropolitan City of Florence

and the Provinces of Pistoia and Prato (SABAP),

the San Leolino Community at Certosa di Firenze

and media partners The Florentine, Calliope Arts

Foundation and Restoration Conversations.

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What is tcq?

The Curators’ Quaderno

is a collection of

notebook-style

publications, conceived

by the Calliope

Arts Foundation, in

collaboration with The

Florentine Press, to

raise awareness of

women’s contributions

to the fields of art,

science and culture.

Special thanks to project ‘curators’,

including scholars, public officials,

conservators, consultants and art

administrators, many of whom are

featured herein: Cristina Acidini, Don

Bernardo Artusi, Graziella Cirri, Giulia

Coco, Nancy Galliher, Luna Gordon,

Sasha Perugini, Margie MacKinnon,

Wayne McArdle, Poiret Masse,

Enrico Sartoni, Laura Turchi, Marina

Vincenti and Elizabeth Wicks.

Heartfelt gratitude also goes to

those responsible for producing and

promoting this quaderno, including

Marco Badiani, Deborah Bettazzi,

Leo Cardini, Ottaviano Caruso,

Giacomo Badiani, Helen Farrell, Olga

Makarova and Giovanni Giusti.

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