Elisabetta Sirani: Maestra of Baroque Bologna

Elisabetta Sirani, Portrait of Ortensia Leoni Cordini as Saint Dorothy, 1661, private collection. Image: Robert Simon Fine Art.

Elisabetta Sirani was one of the most important artists in early 17th century Italy. She worked in Bologna, a city with a thriving network of female writers and patrons, and she inspired several other young women to follow in her footsteps. It is only in recent years, however, that her name has come to be known on the international stage. Elisabetta Sirani: Maestra of Baroque Bologna is her first solo exhibition outside Italy, organised not by a museum but by a New York-based art dealer with an enthusiasm for her work.

While the careers of so many female artists of the past lie in obscurity, Sirani’s is very well documented—a consequence of her pride in signing her paintings, her own record of them in a manuscript catalogue, and the contemporary reception and acclaim that she received across the brief ten years of her activity as an artist. Her accomplishments as painter, draughtswoman, printmaker, teacher, and studio capomaestra were recognized during her lifetime and eulogized after her tragic death in 1665 at age 27.

A full exhibition catalogue is available online.