A detail, pre-restoration of Ferroni’s Saint John of God heals plague victims
Who was Violante Ferroni?
A spotlight on AWA’s next ‘leading lady’
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What do we know of Violante Ferroni today? She was a Florentine painter born in 1720. She was initially a student of Violante Siries Cerroti, a court artist and the first woman to copy at the Uffizi, whose masterwork AWA restored at Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi Church in 2014. Ferroni would later study with Gian Domenico Ferretti, a painter who dominated the Florentine art scene during much of the eighteenth century. Ferroni was active in his workshop and is said to have been the model for Ferretti’s Portrait of a Lady dressed as Diana. She was accepted as a member of the Accademia del Disegno, Europe's first drawing academy, in 1736. Her work was exhibited in the Academy of San Luca exhibit in 1737 and 1776, as well as at the Uffizi Gallery. In the 1700s, the Ancient Hospital of San Giovanni di Dio underwent renovations; its atrium, fitted with a magnificent staircase, was created in 1735, around the time that Saint John of God was canonized. Ferroni was commissioned two large scale ovals for the atrium, whilst the frescos in the vault were painted in part by Vincenzo Meucci, Ferroni's teacher.