Elisabetta Sirani

1638 – 1665

Italian woman painter, daughter of Giovanni Andrea Sirani, who had been the principal assistant of Guido Reni. Her talent was encouraged by the writer Malvasia, who later wrote an adulatory biography of her in his 'Felsina Pittrice' (1678). She was active by 1655, and by 1662 she had recorded about ninety works, executing at least another eighty before she died at the age of 27. None of her portraits has survived but religious, mythological and allegorical subjects were painted in full view of a crowd of admirers. Her style is close to Reni's - idealized, affecting, sentimental, but with strong chiaroscuro and fine colour. Her sisters Anna Maria (1645-1515), and Barbara (alive in 1678) were also painters. Barbara's portrait of Elisabetta is in Bologna.

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