The 16th century nun and working artist who defended women’s rights to art and independence.

Issue #7: money, religion, lost art, restoration, The Last Supper.

In an era when women were servile first to their fathers, then to their husbands, with few rights and many limitations on their activities and autonomy, this Florentine woman found an artistic haven in life as a nun. She created a respected reputation for herself, painted alongside many of the famed renaissance masters, and was responsible for the first ever known depiction of Christ’s Last Supper by a woman. And it’s only in recent years that her work has been getting rediscovered.