Project to restore Rome altarpiece together with Bricci's rightful place in art history.A non-profit organisation dedicated to recovering the work of overlooked female artists has launched a major restoration campaign for a 17th-century altarpiece by Plautilla Bricci in the heart of Rome.Artemisia Gold is a US and UK-registered charity committed to the rediscovery, restoration and exhibition of semi-forgotten Italian female artists, including Bricci, Suor Plautilla Nelli, and Artemisia Gentileschi, whose work was largely overlooked until modern times. The organisation's latest project centres on the monumental altarpiece The Birth of the Virgin, painted by Bricci around 1660 and housed in the first chapel on the right of the Church of Santa Maria in Campo Marzio, close to the Pantheon in central Rome. "Plautilla Bricci was not just a female artist in the Baroque period, she was famously known for being an architect, probably the first female architect of Italy, if not Europe", Jane Adams, co-founder and CEO of Artemisia Gold, told Wanted in Rome during a visit to the church with the restorers, adding: "She was quite a formidable lady in her time." Who was Plautilla Bricci? Bricci (1616-1705) was indeed a pioneering figure in her day: in addition to being a painter and architect, she was also a draughtsman, an amateur musician and a sculptor. She is celebrated for designing the Villa del Vascello (largely destroyed in 1849 during the battle between Garibaldi and French troops on Rome's Gianicolo hill) and the Chapel of St Louis in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, for which she produced both the architectural design and the altarpiece. Despite this, her reputation faded for centuries, and her stature as a painter was only brought to wider public attention by Melania Mazzucco's novel L'architettrice in 2019, with her catalogue of works fully explored by art-historical scholarship only in recent years, culminating in a 2023 exhibition at the Gallerie Nazionali d'Arte Antica in Rome's Palazzo Corsini. Restoration project Restoration work is set to begin in September on Bricci's altarpiece which was painted for the church at the behest of its abbess, Anna Maria Mazzarino, sister of the powerful papal diplomat Cardinal Mazarin. The fact that the commissioner and artist were both female was "quite rare" for the period, according to Adams, who emphasises the "remarkable display of female agency" as she points to the painting's midwives and handmaids. The Birth of the Virgin by Plautilla Bricci. Photo Artemisia Gold. The painting is substantial in size, measuring 3.5 metres by 2.2 metres. The scene unfolds in an interior setting, with figures arranged across multiple levels. In the foreground, a midwife is surrounded by attendants, Saint Anne, and the newborn Virgin; to the right in the background lies the mother resting in bed, attended by handmaids beneath a large draped canopy; and in the upper register, an angel seated on clouds amid seraphim signals the divine dimension of the event. Currently in poor condition, the painting will require extensive restoration work, according to Adams. The project will also go beyond straightforward conservation to study Bricci's methods, examining her compositional process, the pigments she used and her painting technique, with restorers hopeful about finding a few hidden surprises along the way. At the time of writing, the total project budget stands at $150,000, of which $60,000 has already been raised, leaving $90,000 still to secure. According to Artemisia Gold, the funds will support not only the restoration and diagnostic analysis but also a scholarly Italian-English publication, an educational documentary film, and a public exhibition to be held in the church alongside the painting. The restored work is set to be unveiled to the public in spring 2027. For full details and updates see Artemisia Gold website.

A non-profit organisation dedicated to recovering the work of overlooked female artists has launched a major restoration campaign for a 17th-century altarpiece by Plautilla Bricci in the heart of Rome. Artemisia Gold is a US and UK-registered charity committed to the rediscovery, restoration and exhibition of semi-forgotten Italian female artists, including Bricci, Suor Plautilla Nelli, and Artemisia Gentileschi, whose work was largely overlooked until modern times. The organisation's latest project centres on the monumental altarpiece The Birth of the Virgin, painted by Bricci around 1660 and housed in the first chapel on the right of the Church of Santa Maria in Campo Marzio, close to the Pantheon in central Rome. "Plautilla Bricci was not just a female artist in the Baroque period, she was famously known for being an architect, probably the first female architect of Italy, if not Europe", Jane Adams, co-founder and CEO of Artemisia Gold, told Wanted in Rome during a visit to the church with the restorers, adding: "She was quite a formidable lady in her time." Bricci (1616-1705) was indeed a pioneering figure in her day: in addition to being a painter and architect, she was also a draughtsman, an amateur musician and a sculptor. She is celebrated for designing the Villa del Vascello (largely destroyed in 1849 during the battle between Garibaldi and French troops on Rome's Gianicolo hill) and the Chapel of St Louis in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, for which she produced both the architectural design and the altarpiece. Despite this, her reputation faded for centuries, and her stature as a painter was only brought to wider public attention by Melania Mazzucco's novel L'architettrice in 2019, with her catalogue of works fully explored by art-historical scholarship only in recent years, culminating in a 2023 exhibition at the Gallerie Nazionali d'Arte Antica in Rome's Palazzo Corsini. Restoration work is set to begin in September on Bricci's altarpiece which was painted for the church at the behest of its abbess, Anna Maria Mazzarino, sister of the powerful papal diplomat Cardinal Mazarin. The fact that the commissioner and artist were both female was "quite rare" for the period, according to Adams, who emphasises the "remarkable display of female agency" as she points to the painting's midwives and handmaids.
The Birth of the Virgin by Plautilla Bricci. Photo Artemisia Gold.

The painting is substantial in size, measuring 3.5 metres by 2.2 metres. The scene unfolds in an interior setting, with figures arranged across multiple levels. In the foreground, a midwife is surrounded by attendants, Saint Anne, and the newborn Virgin; to the right in the background lies the mother resting in bed, attended by handmaids beneath a large draped canopy; and in the upper register, an angel seated on clouds amid seraphim signals the divine dimension of the event. Currently in poor condition, the painting will require extensive restoration work, according to Adams. The project will also go beyond straightforward conservation to study Bricci's methods, examining her compositional process, the pigments she used and her painting technique, with restorers hopeful about finding a few hidden surprises along the way. At the time of writing, the total project budget stands at $150,000, of which $60,000 has already been raised, leaving $90,000 still to secure. According to Artemisia Gold, the funds will support not only the restoration and diagnostic analysis but also a scholarly Italian-English publication, an educational documentary film, and a public exhibition to be held in the church alongside the painting. The restored work is set to be unveiled to the public in spring 2027. For full details and updates see .