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Features
A sixteenth-century wet nurse at Florence’s Innocenti hospital. A drawing academy that accepted women painters as early as 1616. A city saved by the foreign author who made it her home. A palace in ruins, and the ‘mythological’ women buried under the rubble.
Our features shine a light on little-known stories and fascinating personalities. Meet the women whose gestures, big and small, create a mosaic of female heritage. Keep up with our favourite stories here. These blog-style features inspire our bi-annual magazine.
Back from the brink
The restoration of Artemisia’s Hercules and Omphale, the dramatic backstory By Margie MacKinnon Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine Autumn/Winter 2025 - Issue 8 Getty’s senior conservator of paintings Ulrich Birkmaier cleans the surface of Hercules and Omphale , from Sursock Palace Collections © 2022 J. Paul Getty Trust Artemisia Gentileschi’s Hercules and Omphale , the star of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles’s exhibition, Artemisia’s Strong Women: R
The Medici Are Dead
Violante Siriès’ success in a changing art market An interview with Giulia Coco by Linda Falcone Originally published in Restoration Conversations Issue 8 Autumn/Winter 2025 Maria Theresa of Austria’s husband Francis Stephan decided to stay in Vienna with his wife in 1737, despite being proclaimed head of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Europe’s more powerful states had refused to recognise Anna Maria Luisa, the last of the Medici line, as the territory’s legitimate ruler, bec
‘Artist and Friend of the Poor’
Personal Reflections on Sarah Cecilia Harrison By Anne Chisholm In the tall house in Hampstead where I grew up hung a number of large, dark portraits in gold frames. The only one that caught my eye was that of a beautiful dark-haired woman, her lips parted, wearing a slightly decollete black dress. My mother told me that it was a portrait of my Irish grandmother, Eliza Beatrice Harrison, painted for her engagement to my English grandfather, Hugh Chisholm, by her younger sis
Marie-Clémentine, Maria and Susanna
Becoming Suzanne Valadon By Margie MacKinnon Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine Autumn/Winter 2025 - Issue 8 Suzanne Valadon, 1923, The Violin Case, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Source: Wikipedia Suzanne Valadon’s life reads like a paperback novel, with a plot that takes the heroine from obscurity to notoriety and, belatedly, much deserved acclaim. Its setting is Montmartre, the bohemian centre of turn-of-the-century Paris, and the cast of
The Truths You Can(’t) Tell
Carla Danella in conversation with author Vanessa Nicolson By Linda Falcone Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine Autumn/Winter 2025 - Issue 8 Art historian and author Vanessa Nicolson, ph. courtesy of the author Freelance writer and curator Carla Danella speaks with long-time friend Vanessa Nicolson, an art historian and author of the memoirs Have you Been Good? and The Truth Game . More recently, Nicolson published Angels of Mud , a novel set against
Beginning with paint
Exploring Pasquarosa’s home and history By Federica Parretti Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine Autumn/Winter 2025 - Issue 8 Pasquarosa, 1913, Still life with flowers and a fan , Civico Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea We passed Tivoli, with its lovely view of the whole plain from the Aniene to the Tiber valleys, dotted with their renowned Roman hills. Then we continued on to Arsoli, amidst nature still groggy from its sleep, which offered unexpect
How does your garden grow?
Women sculptors in a space of their own By Margie MacKinnon Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine Autumn/Winter 2025 - Issue 8 Its All Kicking Off Lucy Gregory, ph. Nick Turpin. MARY MARY at theCOLAB/The Artist’s Garden, Temple, London As you exit the Temple tube station, take a few quick turns to the left, then go up a short flight of stairs. You will find yourself in a public space which occupies a prime location in the City of London, overlooking th
The Eye of the Needle: Textile storytelling with artist Cécile Davidovici
An interview by Linda Falcone Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine Spring/Summer 2025 - Issue 7 Come autumn 2025,...
John Singer Sargent’s ‘Dollar Princesses’
A fresh look at portraits from the Gilded Age By Margie MacKinnon Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine...
Header photo: Fiora Leone, The Sun in Florence detail, Florence Civic Museums.
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