see also
original title:
Gli Innocenti di Firenze
directed by:
cast:
Nicoletta Fontani, Elizabeth Wicks, Lucia Sandri, Timothy Verdon, Eleonora Mazzocchi, Ottaviano Caruso
screenplay:
cinematography:
editing:
producer:
production:
country:
Italy
year:
2019
film run:
90'
format:
colour
status:
Ready (11/10/2019)
festivals & awards:
It’s 1410 and there is a huge social problem in Florence. Babies
are abandoned and dying at an alarming rate. To solve the problem
Florence’s humanists organise and build a hospice for babies to
assist young mothers. To celebrate the completion of the new
building in 1446, they commission a painting to act as their
poster, logo and symbol for the new Institute.
Flash forward 600 years to 2013, the very same painting sits in a
museum within the original building. Two women, an American and an
Italian, are tasked with the restoration of the work due to be
displayed after a renovation and reopening of the museum.
The catalyst for this film is the painting. Over the course of 30
months the painting is meticulously restored and new mysteries
about her origins are discovered. After centuries, restorers
reflect on the work, it’s meaning and life in the time it was
created.
The collective stories behind this painting are many because the
Institute it represents is still in operation and has a rich and
diverse history. Witnessing the restoration, allows viewers to
learn about the process and reflect on the meaning of the painting
which stood for women and social values in the humanist
Renaissance era.
While the women work to restore the painting and uncover new facts
and data about the creation of the work by famous Florentine
Domenico di Michelino, viewers weave through the past to a time
when modern social welfare systems are implemented and tested.
The process of restoring artwork leads us to the very ideas which
created it. This is a fascinating tale of how an Institute
invented ways to save babies lives and continually morphed into a
place mandated to provide innovative solutions for children.
Here, the foundations for a building which were the hospice for
women and babies develops into a home for the abandoned to care
for the least fortunate in society. To this day the Institute the
now restored painting represents is active in social services and
in assisting women and children in need.
It houses a museum and the international offices of UNICEF. This
single image, a painting, takes on centuries of meaning as we see
she is gently restored and remains the symbol of the Institute
which originally inspired her creation.