Plautilla Nelli

Plautilla Nelli (1524–1588) was a Dominican nun and painter in Renaissance Florence, known as the first woman painter documented in the city.

Connect

Last Supper (Plautilla Nelli): A monumental painting of Christ and the apostles attributed to Plautilla Nelli and preserved in Florence. Its restoration brought renewed attention to Nelli’s authorship and the scale of her work.
Giovanna da San Giovanni: A seventeenth-century Florentine painter and nun known for frescoes and drawings. Her later career offers a comparison with Nelli’s artistic work within a convent.
San Domenico Maggiore, Florence: A Dominican convent in Florence where Plautilla Nelli lived and worked. The convent was the setting for Nelli’s religious life and artistic workshop.
Advancing Women Artists: A Florence-based nonprofit that researches, restores, and promotes art by women artists. The organization helped restore and publicize Nelli’s monumental Last Supper.
Lamentation (Plautilla Nelli): A devotional painting by Plautilla Nelli depicting mourners grieving over Christ’s body. It exemplifies the emotional religious imagery associated with Nelli’s surviving paintings.
Sister Plautilla: The name used by the Renaissance painter Polissena de’ Nelli after entering religious life. This religious name distinguishes Nelli’s public identity from her birth name.
Dominican Order: A Catholic religious order founded in the thirteenth century, devoted to preaching and study. Nelli’s membership situated her within a religious institution that shaped her daily work.
Art restoration: The practice of stabilizing and repairing artworks while preserving their material and historical evidence. Restoration made Nelli’s large refectory painting accessible for closer study.
Saint Catherine of Siena (Plautilla Nelli): A painting by Plautilla Nelli depicting the Dominican mystic and saint Catherine of Siena. The subject connects Nelli’s artistic identity to her Dominican religious community.
Giorgio Vasari: An Italian painter, architect, and writer whose Lives of the Artists shaped Renaissance art history. Vasari praised Nelli and recorded evidence of her reputation in Florence.