Portrait of St. Catherine of Siena by Sister Plautilla Nelli
The best among women.
Florence gave us the greatest artists in Western civilization—Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Raphael.
And…Plautilla Nelli!
Born in Florence in 1524, Plautilla Nelli became a Dominican nun and an accomplished painter at a time when women faced formidable obstacles in pursuing artistic careers. Her achievements were sufficiently remarkable to earn recognition from Giorgio Vasari, the celebrated Renaissance painter, architect, and biographer of Italian artists.
The New York gallery Robert Simon Fine Art will present Suor Plautilla Nelli: La Prima, an exhibition devoted exclusively to her paintings and artistic legacy. Scheduled from October 19 through November 25, 2026, the exhibition will feature 14 paintings and one drawing created by Nelli — all from inside the workshop she established at the Convent of Santa Caterina in Cafaggio, Florence.
It will be the first exhibition devoted exclusively to Nelli outside Florence.
Portrait of St. Catherine of Siena by Sister Plautilla Nelli
_____
Plautilla’s Plateau
The exhibition's title, La Prima, meaning "The First," derives from Vasari's recognition of Nelli as the first among the women painters of his time.
Nelli's artistic career developed within the walls of the Convent of Santa Caterina, located across from the celebrated Monastery of San Marco. There, she established a workshop to produce religious paintings for convent residents and Florentine households.
Her devotion to the Dominican religious tradition was reflected in her choice of subjects.
Portrait of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, by Plautilla Nelli, produced in the 16th century
_____
Saintly Savonarola
On display in the coming New York exhibition will be the artist’s portrait of Fra Girolamo Savonarola. Nelli was an admirer of Girolamo Savonarola, although he died some decades before she was born. The fiery Dominican preacher took control of Florence after the ousting of the Medici. He called for religious and moral reform through the Bonfire of the Vanities.
Savonarola was especially antagonistic toward the Borgia family, whose patriarch, Rodrigo, sat on the throne of Saint Peter as Pope Alexander VI. Emissaries from Rome were sent to Florence to subsequently arrest Savonarola and hang him in the Piazza della Signoria in 1498.
Nelli shows Savonarola, not as a fiery priest, but rather as a religious figure of great relevance. He is painted with his right index finger raised in a gesture of instruction and admonition. The painting conveys the authority of a man who believed he had a divine mission to reform Florence. Behind his head is a thin, golden halo, an attribute traditionally associated with saints.
"Christ with Religious Figures," by Plautilla Nelli
_____
Divine Depictions
In the painting titled “Christ with Religious Figures” Nelli offers Christ, the Virgin Mary, two Dominican nuns, and a young girl, with God the Father and angels above. Nelli’s inclusion of the nuns reflects the devotional world in which she worked.
In “Madonna and Child,” Nelli paints the Virgin Mary nursing the Christ Child, surrounded by saints. The figure holding a cross on the right appears to be John the Baptist.
Nelli's accomplishments were not limited to small devotional paintings. Her monumental Last Supper, measuring more than 23 feet across, stands among her most extraordinary achievements. Painted during the 16th century, it is recognized as the earliest known depiction of the biblical scene by a woman artist. Following an extensive restoration, the painting was unveiled in 2019 at Florence's Santa Maria Novella Museum.
_____
Nelli Now
Interest in Nelli has increased considerably in recent decades. Restoration projects and scholarly investigations have helped identify and preserve her surviving works. In 2017, Florence's Uffizi Gallery presented an exhibition devoted to the artist, bringing greater recognition to her contributions to Renaissance painting.
Robert Simon, founder of the New York gallery, has maintained a longstanding interest in women artists of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. He described the forthcoming exhibition as a personal undertaking, reflecting years of studying and handling paintings attributed to Nelli.
Simon hopes that displaying her works together, including newly identified paintings, will encourage further scholarship into an artist whose life remains only partially documented.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a 110-page illustrated catalogue edited by Gallery Director Dominic Ferrante. Contributions from international scholars will examine Nelli's artistic achievements, individual paintings, and the materials and techniques she employed.
For visitors, the exhibition offers an opportunity to discover an extraordinary Italian woman whose religious vocation did not prevent her from achieving distinction in one of history's greatest periods of artistic creativity.
Exhibition Information: Suor Plautilla Nelli: La Prima, October 19–November 25, 2026, Robert Simon Fine Art, 22 East 80th Street, Fourth Floor, New York City. Website: www.robertsimon.com.
_____
Editor's Note:
The article draws primarily on the supplied gallery press release, with additional historical context concerning Nelli's Last Supper. The gallery's current website lists exhibition hours as 11 a.m.–5 p.m. on weekdays, differing from the general hours in the press release.
READ HERE THE NEW EDITION - THIRD 2026 PRIMO
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Please visit our DVDs Page to shop our latest collection of DVDs on all things Italian: Films from Italy's Golden Age, Documentaries on Italian American life, ancient Rome, and religion.
Please visit our Books' page to review our latest inventory of books on all things Italian: cookbooks, history, art and culture.
Other articles to read...
