On June 13th, 2022, Italy dedicated its first bronze statue that honors a female scientist, honoring the astronomer Margherita Hack, the first woman professor in astronomy in Italy. Margherita Hack (1922-2013) was born and raised in Florence. Even though her parents were members of the Italian Theosophical Society, she became an atheist. Since she was little, Hack was a vegetarian and competed in long and high jumps. In 1944, she married her childhood friend Aldo De Rosa. Based on her research in the Arcetri Observatory, mentored by Giorgio Abetti, she submitted her thesis in astrophysics and received her physics degree from the University of Florence in 1945. From 1964 to 1992, she was a full professor of astronomy at the University of Trieste, the first woman professor of astronomy in Italy. She became the Head of the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste (till 1987); she was the first woman in this position. She wrote papers, scientific books, and popular science books, was involved in the world astronomy community, developed astronomy growth in Italy, and promoted it in the media, frequently appearing on television, winning the nickname the Lady of the Stars and inspiring women to become scientists. Outside the scientific world, she was politically and socially active, campaigning for gay and abortion rights and against the Vatican City’s influence on Italian public life. To commemorate her 100th birthday, the Deloitte Foundation commissioned a statue in her honor. The jury chose the artist Daniela Olivieri (known as Sissi) to design and create it. The memorial, titled “Sguardo Fisico” (Physical Gaze), stands in a garden next to the entrance of the main campus of the University of Milan. The bronze statue depicts Hack as a strong, independent woman emerging from the galaxy spiral. She raises her hands in a typical gesture, looking at the stars and beyond them. It is the second statue dedicated to a woman in Milan. The first commemorates Cristina Trivulzio di Belgioijoso (1808-1871), an activist for Italy’s independence, writer, and philanthropist. Read more...

Félicie de Fauveau (1801-1886) was one of the first professional sculptresses in the world, and this is one of the several public statues she sculptured. Fauveau was born to French parents in Tuscany and grew up in Florence. She moved to Paris, studied painting and sculpture, and opened an art studio (1826-1830) that was also a gathering center for fellow artists. She became a full-time sculptress, receiving commissions and awards for her work. After Napoleon’s downfall, de Fauveau supported the return of the bourbon king to France and even had an active role in the rebellion of the royalists. She got punished for her part in the unsuccessful revolution and spent six months in prison; upon her release, she decided to return to Florence in 1834 and stay in exile until the Count of Chambord succeeded as king of France. A wish that never came true. In Florence, she became a celebrity in the artistic and high society circles, founded a studio on Via Degli Serragli, and sculptured foreign travelers and members of the royal families of Europe and Russia. In 1854 de Fauveau created this marble monument that pays tribute to the West Indian poet Louise de Favreau, who died at only 17. Inspired by the poem de Favreau wrote before her death, De Fauveau immortalized her in this monument at the Church of Santa Croce. In 1966, it got severely damaged from the flooding of the Arno River, and over time, the stone became discolored from daily exposure to outdoor elements. In 2012 the Advancing Women Artists Foundation restored this monument and the Santa Maria del Carmine’s Monument to Anne de la Pierre, which de Fauveau sculptured in 1859, depicting a realistic portrait of her mother. The restoration and maintenance project enabled a deeper understanding of de Fauveau’s sculpting techniques. De Fauveau’s final resting place is at the central chapel of the San Felice a Ema cemetery, south of Florence; her art still exists and is displayed in European museums, including the Museo D’Orsay and the Louvre in Paris. Advancing Women Artists Foundation (AWA) was founded as an American not-for-profit organization in 2008 by Dr. Jane Fortune; their mission was to highlight and celebrate the work of women artists, including identifying, restoring, and exhibiting artwork by women in Florence’s museum storages. Sadly, AWA stopped operating in 2021, leaving its website to remain a resource for learning more about pioneer artists. Read more...

Considered one of the most visited attractions in Venice and one of the top ten in Italy, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a Modern Art Museum in the heart of Venice. Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979) was born to the wealthy Guggenheim family in New York City. In her 20s, she moved to Europe; in her 40s, she opened a gallery for modern art in London and started collecting art. Her gallery showcased famous and some less-famous artists as well as group exhibitions of sculptures and collages of contemporary artists. After 11 years of operation, in 1939, she closed the gallery, wishing to upgrade and open a contemporary art museum. She tried in London and then Paris, but the outbreak of World War II drove her back to NYC in 1941, where she opened an art gallery called The Art of This Century. Following the end of World War II and her divorce in 1946, she relocated to Venice, Italy, settling in the 18th-century Palazzo Venier dei Leoni (‘unfinished palazzo of the lions’) on the Grand Canal in 1948. Every year, since 1951, from April to September, she opened her home to the public to view her collection. She donated her home and art collection to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation three years before she died. She passed away in 1979; her ashes were scattered in the garden. The museum opened its door in 1980. It showcases works of prominent Italian futurists and American modernists working in such genres as Cubism, Surrealism, and abstract expressionism. In 2017, Peggy Guggenheim’s granddaughter, Karole Vail, became the second director of the collection. Read more...

A larger-than-life sculpture garden with twenty-two monumental figures created by the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle stands in the countryside in the heart of Tuscany, Italy. Saint Phalle (1930–2002) was a monumental sculptress, painter, and filmmaker. She displayed her sculptures in top museums and outdoor gardens worldwide. Some of these sculptures enabled people to walk through and interact with them, while some even had playground slides. In 1955, Saint Phalle visited Park Güell by Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona and was deeply inspired. After she visited Sacro Bosco (Parco dei Mostri) in Bomarzo, Italy, Palais Idéal by Ferdinand Cheval, in France, and Watts Towers by Simon Rodia, in Los Angeles, CA, she decided to create her own sculpture garden based on symbols from the Tarot. In 1975, while on a health retreat in the Swiss Mountains, she dedicated her time planning her sculpture park and growing her vision into action. She purchased a fourteen-acre piece of land in Garavicchio in Tuscany, Italy, and worked on this project from 1978 till its official opening on May 15th, 1998, considering it her life work. The twenty-two monumental figures in the garden represent Mysteries figures from the Tarot Cards. They were constructed of reinforced concrete and covered with mirrors and ceramic mosaic. During the two decades Saint Phalle worked on the sculptures, she lived inside the sphinx-like Empress. Her bedroom was on one breast while the kitchen was on the second. The wall that surrounds the garden was created from local stones. In her words, Saint Phalle described it as “the separation of the world without and the world within. The wall symbolizes for me protection like the dragon who protects the treasure in fairy tales.” Read more...

On September 15th, 2021, Milan dedicated the first statue honoring a woman, Cristina Trivulzio di Belgioioso. The city Milan was founded in 400 BC and is home to 121 sculptures. Hundred and twenty of them honor notable men. All over Italy, there are few statues of real women. Cristina Trivulzio di Belgioioso (1808-1871) was a notable writer, journalist, philanthropist, and heroine of the Risorgimento who contributed to Italy’s struggle for independence. She was born in Milan into a high-class family. At 16, she married Prince Emilio Barbiano di Belgiojoso and left him soon after discovering he had an affair. She moved to Paris and set up a salon which became a gathering place for Italian revolutionaries, European artists, singers, musicians, and more. Her adventurous and unordinary life continued when she had a daughter outside the marriage and traveled in Europe and the Middle East, writing about the oppressive conditions of women in the area. Believing in the power of education, she established a school for the poor kids where she lived near Milan. All her life and until Italy’s unification in 1861, she worked for Italy’s independence, writing articles about it in newspapers, financing soldiers, and assisting the statesman. She passed away at the age of 63 near Milan. Her statue was created by the sculptor Giuseppe Bergomi who depicted her sitting on a couch, leaning forward. Her right hand holds a book, and her left-hand holds a quill and a pack of papers with her writing. Her words are inscribed on the couch’s back. Located in Piazza Belgioioso, the statue is next to Casa del Manzoni, a museum about Alessandro Manzoni’s and his family’s life. Manzoni was a poet, philosopher, and politics, but also a narrowed-mined person, believing that women are incapable and objecting to the right of poor people to education. Read more...