A Space of Their Own

Thank you for inviting me to contribute a tribute to Jane. My most recent experience with her involved her generous sustaining support for our Feminist Art History Conference (FAHC) at American University (AU). The university was very grateful for Jane’s contribution, which, along with a second major donation from an AU graduate, literally made it possible for the conference to continue. She was planning to come to the conference that year, 2018, but her illness and subsequent passing prevented that from happening. I presented a tribute to her on the opening night of the conference, and I think it fair to say there were few dry eyes in the house, even those who never knew her personally but who loved her story.

It is now my privilege to acknowledge the extraordinary support of Jane Fortune. When Jane learned about Robin’s generous gift to AU to safeguard the future of its FAHC, she made an equally generous gift. Robin’s and Jane’s support have, together, ensured the long-term continuation of FAHC.

Jane, too, had wanted to join us to celebrate the renewal of the conference. But her serious illness made that increasingly unlikely, and I am very sorry to report that, just a few days ago, Jane Fortune passed away. A large community mourns her loss, but Jane’s gift to AU, to women, and to the world, lives on.

Jane’s gift to us is an extension of her long-term project: to uncover the hidden histories of women artists, recuperate and protect their art, and raise awareness about their cultural contributions. A native of Indiana, whose cultural institutions she also supported, Jane was widely known as “Indiana Jane,” for her archaeological adventures in the discovery of lost treasures, and I can tell you, she was every bit as swashbuckling and charismatic as Indiana Jones. Like many of us here, Jane was an art history major who fell in love with Florence. That love, and her family history of philanthropy, led her to focus her attention on Florence and the neglected women artists of the Italian Renaissance.

Jane pursued her goals, first as a journalist, then as author and co-author of a number of books, including Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence, which inspired an award-winning PBS documentary in 2013. She created the Advancing Women Artists Foundation, a vigorous advocacy organization devoted to reclaiming the “hidden half” of Florence’s art. But Indiana Jane dug deeper: She singled out key paintings by women in Florentine museums that were unexhibitable because they badly needed conservation. When the museum directors said they couldn’t pay for this conservation, Jane said, “I will.” She began with works by Plautilla Nelli and Artemisia Gentileschi, and then more than fifty others. The high-profile attention Jane brought to early modern Florentine women artists was undoubtedly what led the recent director of the Uffizi Museum to initiate a major, one-woman exhibition each year. The first one was devoted to Jane’s own favorite artist, Plautilla Nelli.

Then Indiana Jane dug even deeper. Under the umbrella of the Medici Archive Project in Florence, she endowed a program to support archival research on women artists in the age of the Medici (an era that spans four centuries and an awful lot of archives). The Jane Fortune Research Program on Women Artists, the first of its kind in the world, has spearheaded change in the early modern period, as it brings forth new archival discoveries about women artists, generates scholarly books and articles, and mentors and trains young scholars. Sheila Barker, founding director of the Jane Fortune Research Program, has presented her own scholarly findings to FAHC several times.

Jane also supported scholarship on women by sponsoring several major conferences in Florence, and it was in this connection that I came to meet her, three years ago, when I was invited to give the keynote for a conference on Artemisia Gentileschi. We had scarcely begun to converse with each other when she turned her laser-like focus on FAHC. She had heard that its continuation was threatened for lack of funding, and she said to me, “I want to help. This important conference must keep going.” Three years later, she is one of two donors who made that happen.

Jane found inspiration in the idea of our conference, and I am newly inspired by her life. I hope we all are inspired by her visionary commitment to big ideas, to making important things happen for women, and wholehearted support of the ongoing goal of feminist scholarship—to bring the buried half of history into the light.

Mary Garrard, Professor Emerita of Art History, American University

To meet Jane Fortune was to fall under her spell. I first met Jane when she toured the Indiana University Art Museum (now the Eskenazi Museum of Art) with a group known as “The mistresses,” and like so many others in her orbit, I was captivated by her laugh, warmth, interest in art, enormous energy, and passion for causes. By 2010, Jane had become a member of the museum’s National Advisory Board. In 2011, my husband, Barry, and I happened to be in Italy where we had fun visiting her and her partner, Robert Hesse, and learning more about her love of Florence and her devotion to restoring art made by women through her Advancing Women Artists Foundation. After I retired from the museum in 2015 Jane reached out with an idea of a website devoted to women artists, which became A Space of Their Own. How could I say no? Jane’s enthusiasm and absolute confidence in the project and in me propelled us forward. As I reached out to other scholars over the years, many of them responded by describing their admiration for Jane. As I write about her nearly four years after her untimely death, I, like so many others, remain in awe of this magical woman, whose determination to accomplish her vision was only interrupted by a mortal illness. Jane’s legacy is enormous, thanks to her efforts on behalf of women artists. IU is fortunate to share in her legacy through A Space of Their Own and the Jane Fortune Gallery. I count myself lucky to be among those who knew and loved Jane Fortune—an exceptional force of nature!

Adelheid Gealt
Professor Emerita, Art History, Indiana University
Director Emerita, Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Project Director, A Space of their Own, 2015–21

I first met Jane Fortune some years ago when she spoke about the mission of Advancing Women Artists (AWA) during a presentation held at the Associazione Culturale Il Palmerino, in her beloved Florence. As a scholar of early modern women artists and female patronage I was drawn to what Jane was achieving through AWA. I immediately introduced myself and asked if AWA would be interested in restoring a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi that I had discovered languishing in very poor condition in the deposits of Bologna’s Pinacoteca Nazionale. In her usual passionate way, Jane responded positively, and we organized a visit to the gallery to view the damaged painting, Susanna and the Elders. While circumstances eventually saw the painting restored elsewhere, I was grateful for Jane’s willingness to assist in any way she could.

In 2012 Jane invited me to join the AWA Florence Council of Advisors as a volunteer art historian, an honor I gladly accepted. I remain in awe of Jane’s indomitable spirit and drive and her passion for the recovery of Florence’s forgotten women artists and for the restoration of their works. Her commitment to this cause was unwavering. Jane has done much also for art historical research and documentation on early modern women’s cultural production and patronage through the Jane Fortune Research Program on Women Artists in the Age of the Medici, directed by Dr Sheila Barker at the Medici Archive Project. The program has offered many a young scholar the opportunity to undertake training in archival research on women artists and patrons, and it established the annual Jane Fortune International Conference as a forum for the dissemination of new archival discoveries, resulting in a number of ground-breaking publications.

I feel very blessed and honored to have known Indiana Jane. May she Rest in Peace.

Dr Adelina Modesti
University of Melbourne
Florentine Advocate AWA