Elisabetta Sirani

Elisabetta Sirani (8 January 1638 – 28 August 1665) was an Italian Baroque painter and printmaker who died in unexplained circumstances at the age of 27. She was a seminal artist in early modern Bologna, who established an academy for other women artists. Elisabetta Sirani was born in Bologna in January 1638, the first of four children of Margherita and Giovanni Andrea Sirani. Sirani was born into an artistic family and was first trained in her father's studio. Her father was a painter of the School of Bologna and was a pupil of Guido Reni and an art merchant. Her biography is included in Carlo Cesare Malvasia’s two-volume Felsina pittrice: vite de’pittori bolognesi, or Lives of the Bolognese Painters, first published in 1678. Malvasia was personally acquainted with the Sirani family and actually took credit for recognizing Elisabetta's talent and persuading her father to train her as an artist, although this was likely self-aggrandizing. There is evidence that Sirani's father was not inclined, at first, to teach his daughter the way of Bolognese painting. She picked up his technique nonetheless and became one of the most renowned painters in Bologna, as a cult grew around her as the female reincarnation for Guido Reni. According to some scholars, she overshadowed both her father and two sisters, who were also painters. Throughout his biography of Sirani, Malvasia praises the originality of her compositions, her style of drawing, her fast manner of working and her professionalism, contrasting her with Lavinia Fontana, an earlier Bolognese woman painter whom he describes as timid. When, by 1654, Giovanni Andrea Sirani became incapacitated by gout Elisabetta began running her family's workshop. Elisabetta Sirani was at this point the family's primary breadwinner. Between her students' fees and portrait commissions, she was able to support the family. Her studio was highly successful, partially due to the progressive atmosphere of Bologna, where women artists were accepted and celebrated.