Plautilla Nelli was born in 1524, in Florence, Toscana, Italy, into a wealthy family. Her father, Piero di Luca Nelli, was a successful fabric merchant and her ancestors originated from the Tuscan valley area of Mugello, as did the Medici dynasty.
Plautilla became a nun at the age of fourteen, taking on the name Suor Plautilla. Nelli's convent of Santa Caterina da Siena, of which she was prioress three times, was managed by the Dominican friars of San Marco, led by Savonarola. Savonarola's preachings promoted devotional painting and drawing by religious women to avoid sloth, thus the convent became a center for nun-artists. Nelli enjoyed the esteemed favor of many patrons, executing large pieces and miniatures.
Though she was self-taught, she copied works of the mannerist painter Agnolo Bronzino and high Renaissance painter Andrea del Sarto. Her primary source of inspiration came from copying works of Fra Bartolomeo, which mirrored the classicism-style enforced by Savonarola's artistic theories. Her work is distinguished from that of her influencers by the heightened sentiment she adds to each of her characters' expressions. Most of Nelli’s works are large-scale, which was most uncommon for a woman to paint, during her time period. She is one of the few female artists mentioned in Vasari's "Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects." Her work is characterized by religious themes, with vivid portrayals of emotion on her characters' faces. Nelli lacked any formal training and her male figures are said to have “feminine characteristics.”
Nelli produced mainly devotional pieces including large-scale paintings, wood lunettes, book illustrations, and drawings. Her paintings include "Lamentation with Saints", "Saint Catherine Receives the Stigmata" and "Saint Dominic Receives the Rosary", in the Andrea del Sarto Last Supper Museum of San Salvi. Nelli’s "Grieving Madonna" is a copy of the same subject by Alessandro Allori. Her Crucifixion is exhibited in the Certosa di Galluzzo Monastery, near Florence. "The Last Supper", in the refectory of Santa Maria Novella, is the only work Nelli signed. Her nine drawings in the Uffizi’s Department of prints and Drawings were restored in 2007 and include several representations of the human figure such as "Bust of a Young Woman", "Head of a Youth", "Kneeling Male Figure." "The Pentecost" is another of her most significant works, as well as her "Annunciation" and "St. Catherine of Siena" both preserved at the Uffizi.
Nelli was a nun, who took her vows when she was 14.
Sister Plautilla was a lady who thought big – not limiting herself to small and pretty images as most of her contemporaries would have felt.
Plautilla Nelli had never been married and had no children.
