Codex 566, San Marco Museum, restored by AWA 2017
Plautilla Nelli's self-portrait?
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Can Nelli's Codex 566 representing Dominican nuns be considered a self-portrait of sorts? This question has plagued us for years, as we seek to uncover Nelli's life story whilst working to protect her creative legacy. In Renaissance convents, it would not have been proper for a nun to represent herself as the protagonist of a work. Might the two nuns in Nelli's miniature represent the artist praying with her sister Petronilla, who also lived in the convent? There’s no telling, but in Florence, the world capital of female self-portraiture, we like to think that this image is Nelli’s answer to self-representation. Adoration of the Christ Child with the Virgin Mary, Joseph, and Two Nuns is considered one of the earliest examples of Nelli’s painting. For the Women's Day Uffizi show in 2017, AWA restored this damaged sixteenth-century manuscript, in storage at the Museum of San Marco.