Lecture: PRE-RAPHAELITE ‘SISTERHOOD’ IN THE VILLAS OF BELLOSGUARDO

November 29 2023 at 6pm

Lecture by Francesca Baldry (online and on site)

British Institute of Florence, Wednesday Lecture Series. Lungarno Guicciardini 9 – Florence

Lecture admission: 12 euro, reservations recommended

Marie Spartali Stillman's The Enchanted Garden

Elizabeth Boott, whose alter ego Henry James captured in Portrait of a Lady, lived in Florence’s Villa Castellani at Bellosguardo and her experience shines a light on the pre-Raphaelite ‘brotherhood’s’ female perspective, as she and other ‘muses’ carved their space as painters in their own right when they sojourned on the hills of Florence.

Mary Spartali Stillman’s over 170 works illustrate how romanticizing ‘the Renaissance’ was a marketable genre. Painter Evelyn De Morgan, also a Bellosguardo aficionado, was a rebellious suffragette and spiritualist who produced some of the turn-of-the century’s most evocative angel images, while in Florence from 1895 to 1914. Their presence in the city and its outskirts in the second half of the Nineteenth century, shaped the image of contemporary Florence. Details of how to attend in person or online at Special Events - The British Institute of Florence.

This programme organised by Calliope Arts, the British Institute of Florence and Cultural Association Il Palmerino, is made possible with the generous support of Alice Vogler, Donna Malin, Margie MacKinnon and Wayne McArdle. See here for full programme calendar.