Elisabetta Sirani

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Self-portrait, around 1665

Elisabetta Sirani (born January 8, 1638 in Bologna ; † August 28, 1665 there ) was an Italian painter and engraver . She founded an art academy for girls and women only in Bologna and was one of the first women ever to be accepted as a member of the renowned Accademia di San Luca in Rome.

Life

Elisabetta Sirani came from a Bolognese family of artists, artisans and merchants. Her father Andrea Sirani traded in works of art, he was a painter, employed by Guido Reni and himself owned a workshop in which young artists were trained. Elisabetta, like her two younger sisters Barbara and Anna Maria, was tutored by her father. Not only did she receive extensive training in painting, she was also a talented musician, and she was tutored in humanistic subjects. In her father's library, philosophical, historical and art-theoretical writings were at her disposal, including the Iconologia by Cesare Ripa, which is important for baroque painting .

Since she was 17 she worked as a professional artist. Her clients initially came from circles of the wealthy bourgeoisie in Bologna and the flourishing university . Her patrons later included the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III. de 'Medici and other members of the Medici family, such as Leopoldo or Margherita de' Medici. Via an agent of the Medici and her own agent Annibale Ranuzzi, Elisabetta's pictures were conveyed to the Elector of Bavaria, to members of the Gonzaga family in Mantua or the Farnese in Parma.

Since she was 18, Elisabetta kept records of her pictures, which were sold through her father's company. Most of the costs for his workshop, family and household were financed from the proceeds. In contrast to Guido Reni's other employees, Elisabetta did not receive a share of the fees; these were received in full by the father. Not listed in the notebook ( taccuino di lavoro ) are the pictures that she secretly sold to her friends and with which she supported her mother or diverted money for her own needs, such as B. for their music lessons. She often received fees from her aristocratic customers in the form of silver and gold jewelry or precious stones. For example, Leopoldo de 'Medici gave her a cross with 54 diamonds for her painting Allegory of Justice, Charity and Wisdom . As visitors report, these pieces of jewelery were exhibited in their own closet in the family's living room. Elisabetta's studio was evidently an attraction for high-ranking visitors who were traveling through; the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, the Princess of Braunschweig, Christina of Sweden or the son of the Viceroy of Bohemia visited her there.

Since women were not allowed to study at an art academy in the 17th century, she founded an academy only for female students in Bologna, from which a number of professional painters such as Teresa Maria Coriolano and Ginevra Cantofoli emerged . When her father could no longer teach because of an illness, she also took on his pupil.

Epitaph for Guido Reni and Elisabetta Sirani in San Domenico, Bologna

Elisabetta wasn't married. She probably died at the age of only 27 of peritonitis as a result of a gastric ulcer ( ulcera perforata ) and not of suicide or, as the persistent rumor would have it, of poisoning by her maid Lucia Tolomelli, who was accused of all charges in court Elisabetta's father was acquitted. She was buried in the Cappella Guidotti of the Church of San Domenico with great sympathy from the whole city. A common epitaph recalls Guido Reni and Elisabetta Sirani QVAE NON MIRACULA IVNXIT VITA HOC IN TVMOLO IVNGERE MORS POTVIT  (... which did not miraculously connect life that death in the grave could unite) The first biography appeared after just over 10 years about you.

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Elisabetta Sirani painted numerous rather small and medium-sized devotional pictures with the popular and constantly varied motifs Madonna and Child , Madonna and Child with St. John and the Holy Family , for which, following the Council of Trent , the private Prayer of the believers was propagated and there was a great demand. She carried out orders from the orders and brotherhoods for large-format altarpieces, painted some portraits, often role portraits of the client in the fashion of the time, as well as several self-portraits, including self-portraits as a nun, as an allegory of painting, as well as some pictures about allegorical and historical / mythological themes.

What is striking about her history pictures is her preference for “strong women” from ancient mythology and biblical history. There are pictures of Circe , Cleopatra , Dalila with the scissors, Judith with the head of Holofernes , Porzia , who shows her husband Brutus strength and manly valor by sticking a dagger in her thigh, and Timokleia , who is a captain of Alexander the grabs great, who had raped her on the legs and head across a scene rarely depicted plunges him into the well from the Vite of Plutarch .

  • Cleopatra

  • Porzia wounded in the thigh, 1664

  • Timoclea

  • Judith with the head of Holofernes

  • Portrait of Vincenzo Ferdinando Ranuzzi as Cupid

Many of her works show her admiration for Guido Reni, but also references to Caravaggio , the two Carraccis Annibale and Lodovico and Albani .

Elisabetta Sirani worked extremely quickly, so rumors arose that she had secret collaborators. She then painted in her studio, which was always open, and her pictures were created under the eyes of the audience, which the client could occasionally take with them on the same day. In her short creative period of around ten years, she left 14 copper engravings and around 200 oil paintings, including several large-format altar paintings, and a large number of drawings, watercolors, sketches and preparatory bozzetti for her paintings.

Works

  • Allegory of Painting , 1658 Moscow, Pushkin Museum
  • Madonna lactans , Bologna, Coll. Enrico Righi
  • Anna Selbdritt with St. John , Vercelli, Museo Borgogna
  • Madonna with the Dove , 1663, Coll. Borromeo, Isola Bella
  • Madonna with the Pear , 1664, Faenza, Pinacoteca comunale
  • Madonna and Child , 1663, Washington DC, National Museum of Women in the Arts
  • Portrait of Vincenzo Ferdinando Ranuzzi as Cupid , National Museum Warsaw
  • Dalila , 1657, private collection,
  • Timoclea plunges the captain of Alexander the great into a well , 1659, Naples, Museo di Capodimonte
  • Sibylle , Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia
  • Porzia che si ferisce alla coscia , Hoston, Stephen Warren Miles and Marilyn Ross Miles Foundation
  • Cleopatra , Flint, Flint Institute of Art
  • Allegory of Music .1659, private collection
  • Magdalena , 1660, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
  • The Crucifixion of the Ten Thousand Martyrs , 1656, private collection
  • Madonna and Child and Saints Francis and Anthony , Parish Church of Saints Nazarius and Celsus, Bologna
  • St. Anthony with the baby Jesus , Modena, Galleria Estense
  • Allegory of Justice, Love and Wisdom , Modena, Commune di Vignola
  • Amor and Psyche , Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig

literature

Web links

Commons : Elisabetta Sirani  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adelina Modesti (ed.): Elisabetta Sirani. Una Virtuosa del Seicento bolognese. 2004. p. 116.
  2. ^ Vera Fortunati: Frammenti di un dialogo nel tempo: Elisabetta Sirani e le donne artiste. In: Elisabetta Sirani. Bologna 2004. p. 34.
  3. ↑ Vera Fortunati: Frammenti… In: Elisabetta Sirani. Bologna 2004. p. 16.
  4. ↑ Elisabetta Sirani . universitadelledonne.it
personal data
SURNAME Sirani, Elisabetta
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian painter and engraver
DATE OF BIRTH January 8, 1638
PLACE OF BIRTH Bologna
DATE OF DEATH August 28, 1665
Place of death Bologna