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Elisabetta Sirani

Title

Virgin and Child

Date1660

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

94.5 × 75.8 cm

Signedlower left: ELISAB.TA SIRANI /. F. / 1660

Credit LinePurchased, 2021

Object numberNGI.2021.67

DescriptionConsidered one of the most important recent additions to Elisabetta Sirani’s oeuvre, the silvery, pastel tonalities and fluid brushwork of this painting illustrate the artist at maturity. In a devotional exploration of familial intimacy, a rainbow-like halo, blended expertly, demonstrates Sirani’s skilled command over her palette, and interest in the effects of light. The inscription on the bottom left dates the work and makes it identifiable with a painting described in seventeenth-century texts, where it was recorded as a gift to engraver Lorenzo Tinti, a close family friend of the artist.

One of the leading painters of the Bolognese school in the seventeenth century, Sirani, like many women artists of her time, was trained from an early age by her artist father, Giovanni Andrea Sirani. By 1654 she was an independent professional painter, and in her early twenties she took over her father’s large and busy studio. Sirani had a short but prolific and impactful career, passing away at just 27 years old of suspected poisoning.
ProvenanceBologna, painted for Lorenzo Tinti, 1660; J. Wombek, Vienna, undated (according to an old label on the reverse); Schuler Auctions, Zurich, 13/09/2010, lot 4325; Private Swiss collection; Koller Auction House Zurich 19/06/2020; Fondantico di Tiziana Sassoli, Bologna; Purchased, 2021