When fourteen-year-old Pulisena Margherita Nelli crossed the threshold of the Dominican convent at Piazza San Marco in Florence, nobody expected that the daughter of a wealthy textile merchant would become the first known female painter of Renaissance Florence. Taking the religious name Plautilla, she entered a world that, paradoxically, offered women more creative freedom than secular life.
The Convent as a Space of Freedom
In sixteenth-century Florence, half of all educated girls ended up behind convent walls, mainly because their families sought to avoid the cost of dowries. However, at the Santa Caterina di Cafaggio convent, the situation was different from most similar institutions.
This establishment, run by the Dominicans of San Marco under the leadership of Savonarola, deliberately promoted painting and drawing as forms of spiritual discipline for nuns. What might have been seen elsewhere as distracting vanity here received religious sanction.
The Nelli family hailed from Tuscany’s Mugello valley, also home to the Medici. To this day, Florence has a street named Via del Canto de’ Nelli, commemorating this family of merchant entrepreneurs. Plautilla’s father, Piero di Luca Nelli, not only secured her entry into this prestigious convent but likely also gave her some influence over its internal affairs.
Prioress and Entrepreneur
Plautilla did not remain just an ordinary nun. She held the position of prioress three times, which, under the post-Tridentine reforms, meant managing a complex economic unit.
The Council of Trent tightened the rules of convent enclosure, limiting the nuns’ contact with the outside world to conversations through grilles or via trusted intermediaries. Under these conditions, Plautilla had to coordinate the convent’s painting workshop, whose output was a vital source of community income.
Giorgio Vasari, the father of modern art historiography, wrote in his Lives that so many of Plautilla’s works graced Florentine noble homes that describing them all would be impossible. This is a telling testament to the commercial success of an artist who theoretically lived in complete seclusion from the world.
Master and Teacher
Plautilla trained an entire generation of nun-painters. Dominican chronicler Fra’ Serafino Razzi lists six of her students by name, including his own sister, Suor Maria Angelica Razzi. The Santa Caterina convent transformed into a true artistic center, where skills were passed down from generation to generation within the female community.
Plautilla drew inspiration from Fra Bartolomeo and the teachings of Savonarola; in fact, her biological sister Costanza, also a nun, wrote the life of Savonarola. These influences are especially visible in her greatest work, the monumental Last Supper.
Conservator Rossella Lari, who worked for four years on restoring this painting, noted the broad, assured brush strokes and remarkable attention to anatomical detail. The veins, tendons, and nails on the apostles’ hands reveal a keen observation of the human body.
Nelli’s Legacy
Plautilla Nelli died on May 7, 1588, never having left the convent walls she had entered as a fourteen-year-old. For centuries, her oeuvre remained virtually unknown outside a narrow circle of specialists.
Only recently has the restoration of the Last Supper—now on display in the former refectory of the Santa Maria Novella museum—restored her rightful place in the history of art.
She remains the only early modern woman to have painted a Last Supper scene. Researchers see in her rendering of this biblical scene a unique tenderness in the way Christ embraces Saint John—a perspective male artists of her era rarely captured. Today, it allows us to glimpse Renaissance Florence through the eyes of a woman cloistered behind convent walls, yet free in her art.
Marcus Renfell
Marcus Renfell is a historian driven by curiosity and passion. He refuses to accept the “safe,” polished versions of the past. Instead, he brings forgotten, overlooked, and distorted stories back to life. His work blends scholarly precision with the art of storytelling, turning historical narratives into vivid, page-turning experiences.
His mission is simple: to prove that history can be gripping, alive, and deeply personal.
His debut book: Women of Science. Stories You Were Never Told
In his first publication, Marcus Renfell shines a light on the remarkable women who shaped the world of science — both the pioneers whose names we know and the brilliant minds history forgot. It’s an inspiring journey through untold stories, groundbreaking achievements, and the resilience of women who changed our understanding of the world.
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