HALF-DAY SEMINAR on the restoration of artworks by Siriès and Ferroni

3 June 2025, 4pm to 7:30pm

Admission is free, registration required: linda@restorationconversations.org

The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, in via Orsanmichele 4, in Florence, will open its doors to scholars and the art-loving public, on June 3, for a half-day seminar where conservators, art historians and museum officials will reveal their original findings and share new insight into three newly restored works attributed to Violante Siriès at the Certosa di Firenze monastery, restored by the AWA Legacy Fund, in partnership with the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno and Syracuse University in Florence. The event will also feature research on restored works by Siriès' student Violante Ferroni, hosted at the ancient hospital of San Giovanni di Dio, once home to the Vespucci family on Borgo Ognissanti.

Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri, the Florentine collector and art patron and head of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno from 1730 to 1740, wrote the following about Violante Ferroni, who was accepted into the academy in 1736 at the age of 16: Her talent is most evident when she paints scenes of her own composition with oil paints, a medium in which she is also adept at colour mixing. So, Florence has reason to hope that she, in time, will get better and better at painting, especially because she is so enamoured of art that she never gets tired of improving her technique."

Event Speakers

Cristina Acidini, AADFI president

Sasha Perugini, Syracuse University Florence director

Graziella Cirri, SABAP official

Coordinator of AADFI’s General Secretariat, Archives and Libraries

Giulia Coco, curator and art historian, Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze

Linda Falcone, project coordinator

Elizabeth Wicks and Marina Vincenti, conservators

For more on the project, see here.