Sister Plautilla Nelli, a Catholic nun during the Renaissance, took up painting with a passion after the nuns in her convent were encouraged to be creative as a means to worship and connect with God. She was self-taught, studying the paintings and sculptures of other artists.

As she continued to hone her skills, she began receiving commissions for religious artwork to hang in wealthy Florentine homes. She then decided to found an all-women art studio within her convent and teach other nuns how to paint. Together, they started taking on large-scale commission work, which granted them financial independence. Plautilla created her largest work in the 1560s—a massive 21-foot-long painting depicting the Last Supper. She is the first recorded woman artist to render this well-known religious subject.

Plautilla continued to create other large-scale works, a feat unprecedented for women at that time. She became well-known, but in her fame, she strove to convey not just her name, but her story. She accomplished this by writing “Orate pro pictora” below her signature on her paintings, which translates to “pray for the paintress.”