AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

Following the 2017 #MeToo movement, many large Western museums, galleries, and art fairs mounted exhibitions exploring the work of female artists- historic, modern, and contemporary- in an effort to better reflect our world. These efforts have pushed scholars to expand the ‘European Old Master’ canon beyond the likes of Sofonisba Anguissola, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun to include the works of talented and well respected during their time artists like Elisabetta Sirani, Lavinia Fontana, and Rosalba Carriera. As museums and collectors alike rush to acquire art reflecting all genders in their Old Master collections, the emphasis on these newly re-appreciated artists has increased general art market interest for old master paintings by lower tier, less well known female artists.

Until recently, a group of Italian Rococo style capricci (idealized landscapes) were attributed to “Master of the Prato Capricci,” with the Prato referencing the Museo Civic in Prato housing many of the works. Two paintings, clearly by the same artist as those in the Prato, appeared on the art market. However, these two were initialed and dated thus allowing all of the works to be assigned by art historian Consuelo Lollobrigida to their original artist- Maria Luigia Raggi. Maria Luigia Raggi (1742-1813) was a Genoese cloistered Turchine nun who may have escaped from her convent for a period of time to Rome- some might even say a she was a nun on the run. Lollobrigida wrote a monograph on the artist and her work as part of her discovery.

During recent conservation treatments of two signed and dated paintings, technical analysis was carried out to determine Raggi’s methods and materials. Early scholar cataloging efforts noted the Master of the Prato Capricci worked in tempera and watercolor on paper attached to canvas. However, during the course of these treatments at ArtCare Conservation, it was determined these works were executed directly onto a primed canvas with no paper support present. By embracing these unexpected supports and working methods, this discovery has encouraged additional investigation and display of Raggi's work in museums around the world. This paper will discuss Raggi’s materials and methods, including XRF analysis of her pigments, and what both of these may mean for our understanding of her within the larger art market of the time, as well as her impact on the art market today.