The nonprofit organization Artemisia Gold has announced a major restoration project for Plautilla Bricci’s 17th-century altarpiece, 'Birth of the Virgin' (ca. 1660), located in Rome’s Church of Santa Maria in Campo Marzio. Bricci, a rare female polymath of the Baroque era, was Italy’s first professional female architect as well as a prolific painter and sculptor. The restoration team, led by Jane Adams, aims to clean the darkened canvas and conduct X-ray analysis to potentially uncover a hidden signature and more details regarding its commission by Abbess Anna Maria Mazzarino.
This project is significant as it seeks to elevate the legacy of a pioneering woman artist whose architectural and painterly contributions have long been overshadowed by male contemporaries like Caravaggio. By focusing on a work commissioned by a woman for a female-dominated subject, the restoration highlights the unique gender dynamics of the Roman Baroque art market. The initiative follows a growing trend of institutional and scholarly efforts to reclaim the histories of 'lost' female masters and integrate them into the broader art historical canon.