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Elisabetta Sirani (1638-1665)

Professions: Painter; Modelleur; copperplate engraver

  • u - Elisabetta Sirani , Bologna 1638 - 1665 Portia Wounding her Thigh oil on canvas

  • ELISABETTA SIRANI (Bologna 1638-1665)

  • Elisabetta Sirani , Bologna 1638 - 1665 Madonna con Bambino e San Giovannino olio su tela

  • Cerchia di Elisabetta Sirani (Bologna 1638-1665)

Elisabetta Sirani Biography

(b Bologna, 1638; d Aug 1665). Italian painter. She was the daughter of Giovanni Andrea Sirani (1610–70), who had been Guido Reni’s principal assistant. Encouraged by Carlo Malvasia, her mentor and eventual biographer, she was painting professionally by the age of 17. Her prolific talent, as well as her reputed beauty and modesty, soon brought her European renown. The details of her training are unclear, but as a woman she would not have had access to an academy and (like many other professional women painters prior to the 20th century) she was probably taught by her father. Her sisters Anna Maria (1645–1715) and Barbara (alive in 1678) were also practising artists and Elisabetta herself is known to have had female students. As women, they could not undertake any formal study of the male nude, and Sirani’s weakness in depicting male anatomy is sometimes clearly detectable in her work (e.g. St Jerome in the Wilderness , 1650; Bologna, Pin. N.). Sirani’s drawings employ a highly individual pen-and-wash method, eschewing outline and employing quick, blunt strokes of barely dilute ink to create striking chiaroscuro effects (e.g. Cain Slaying Abel , Windsor Castle, Royal Lib.). Her painting style is less distinctive, her fierce chiaroscuro softened by the rich brown shadows favoured by her generation of Bolognese painters.

Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online

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Elisabetta Sirani Sold at AuctionView all Elisabetta Sirani Sold at Auction

  • Circle of Elisabetta Sirani (Bologna 1638-1665) , Elisabetta Sirani, Click for value View Details
  • Elisabetta Sirani (1638-Bologna-1665) St. Agnes with an angel, Elisabetta Sirani, Click for value View Details
  • Circle of Elisabetta Sirani (Bologna 1638-1665) , Elisabetta Sirani, Click for value View Details
  • Elisabetta Sirani Italian, 1638-1665 HEAD OF A YOUNG WOMAN: A DOUBLE-SIDED DRAWING, Elisabetta Sirani, Click for value View Details
  • AFTER GUIDO RENI/ ELISABETTA SIRANI, (Italian, 17th century), PORTRAIT OF BEATRICE CENCI, oil on canvas;, 23 x 18 inches, Elisabetta Sirani, Click for value View Details
  • Elisabetta SIRANI Bologne, 1638 - 1665 LA VISITATION (recto) ; SCENE RELIGIEUSE AU CRAYON NOIR (verso) Sanguine et lavis gris, Elisabetta Sirani, Click for value View Details

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