35 Facts About Elisabetta Sirani

Elisabetta Sirani was an Italian Baroque painter and printmaker who died in unexplained circumstances at the age of 27.

Elisabetta Sirani was one of the first women artists in early modern Bologna, who became a successful painter, producing public altarpieces as well as privately commissioned pictures.

Elisabetta Sirani did not produce many works during his lifetime; instead, he took over Reni's job as a teacher, and became the master in the first life school held in the house of Ettore Ghislieri.

The art biographer Carlo Cesare Malvasia, a personal acquaintance of the Sirani family, claimed credit for recognizing Elisabetta's talent and persuading her father to train her as a painter, although this was likely self-aggrandizing.

Elisabetta Sirani's biography is included in Malvasia's two-volume Felsina pittrice: vite de'pittori bolognesi, or Lives of the Bolognese Painters, first published in 1678.

Elisabetta Sirani is presented therein as the epitome of Bolognese genius, and Malvasia takes much pride in his contribution to her early career.

In establishing her painting style, Elisabetta Sirani studied the works of Annibale Carracci, Lorenzo Pasinelli, Desubleo, Simone Cantarini, and Cignani.

Elisabetta Sirani received her first commission in her teens, a Baptism of Christ, which was a companion piece to an earlier done painting by her father at the Campo Santo of Bologna.

Elisabetta Sirani was knowledgeable in music, one of the reasons being that her brother-in-law was a musician.

Elisabetta Sirani's studio was highly successful, partially due to the progressive atmosphere of Bologna, where women artists were accepted and celebrated.

Elisabetta Sirani's death was considered suspicious and a maidservant, Lucia Tolomelli, was charged with poisoning the artist and put on trial.

Giovanni Andrea Elisabetta Sirani withdrew the charges soon after the trial.

Elisabetta Sirani was given an elaborate funeral which included an enormous catafalque with a life-sized sculpture of the artist, orations and music composed in her honor by Bologna's most prominent citizens, and she was buried in the Basilica of San Domenico, Bologna, in the same tomb as her father's teacher, Guido Reni.

Elisabetta Sirani was described by a poet as the Lamented Paintbrush.

Not only was Elisabetta Sirani the successor of her father's workshop, she was a great teacher of many, especially contributing to women artists' development during the Renaissance period.

Elisabetta Sirani trained a number of men and women artists, including her younger sisters Barbara and Anna Maria and at least twelve other young women at the school she set up.

Elisabetta Sirani produced over 200 paintings, 15 etchings, and hundreds of drawings, making her an extremely prolific artist, especially considering her early death.

Elisabetta Sirani kept a meticulous list and records of her paintings and who commissioned them beginning in 1655, which is recorded in Malvasia's biography.

Elisabetta Sirani's signature offered a way to further prove her powers of invention, which, according to Ann Sutherland Harris, distinguished her from other Italian women artists.

Elisabetta Sirani painted so many works that many doubted that she painted them all herself.

Elisabetta Sirani's works cover a number of subjects, including historical and Biblical narratives, allegories, and portraits, all of which often featured women.

Elisabetta Sirani was the first female artist in Bologna to specialize in history painting, and many of the women painters that Elisabetta Sirani trained followed suit.

Elisabetta Sirani painted at least 13 public altarpieces, including The Baptism of Christ at the Certosa di Bologna of 1658.

Elisabetta Sirani's patrons ranged from cardinals to kings, princes, dukes, merchants, and academics from Bologna and across Europe.

Elisabetta Sirani became a celebrity in her city as visitors, such as diplomats, political leaders, and noblemen, would come to her studio to watch her work.

Elisabetta Sirani's style is close to that of her father's teacher, Guido Reni, but Elisabetta Sirani employed more dramatic contrasts of light and shade, virtuoso brushstrokes, and more brilliant color.

Elisabetta Sirani's striking images of female heroines, such as Portia Wounding Elisabetta Sirani's Thigh are comparable to the work of Artemisia Gentileschi.

Elisabetta Sirani often selected lesser-known subjects for her paintings and her unique interpretation of iconography drew praise from a number of contemporaries.

Elisabetta Sirani managed to thwart visual gender conventions, whereby portraiture was the expected genre for female artists.

Elisabetta Sirani based many of her allegories on Cesare Ripa's descriptions from his Iconologia, published in 1611.

Elisabetta Sirani was no exception, as her father studied and taught history painting.

Elisabetta Sirani portrays Judith in the nighttime, succumbing to the viewer with her act of murder.

Whereas Gentileschi portrays the handmaiden in total collusion with Judith, Elisabetta Sirani depicts a less active handmaiden, emphasizing the forcefulness of Judith in this way.

In other renditions of Judith and Holofernes by Elisabetta Sirani, Judith is still cool and mild-mannered.

Elisabetta Sirani's painting Virgin and Child of 1663, now in the collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, was selected for the United States Postal Service Christmas Holiday Stamp series in October 1994.