Book description
Painter, printmaker and draughtswoman, Elisabetta Sirani (Bologna 1639-1665)
was one of the most erudite and successful artists to practice in Northern
Italy in the Early Modern period. In her short but prolific career she also
played a crucial role in the education and professionalisation of women's
artistic practice, establishing the first formal teaching school for girls
intent on a career in the visual arts. In a profession historically
dominated by men, Elisabetta thereby challenged the traditional
male-to-female mode of artistic training by replacing it with a matrilineal
model, and as "caposcuola" of the Sirani workshop she provided a positive
role model for future generations of professional women artists.
In the first monograph dedicated to this talented "maestra", Adelina Modesti
draws from a rich source of primary material and documentation to explore
the cultural and material conditions in which Sirani lived, worked and
taught. Counter-Reformation Bologna proved to be a supportive and fertile
environment for women's creative expression and public engagement. Employing
an interdisciplanary approach the study examines Sirani's professional and
social identity as an artist, an educator and a woman in this context: her
own cultural formation and education; artistic, teaching and workshop
practices; her large and varied production and innovative iconography
(public and private works); strategies of display and promotion; extended
patronage/matronage networks; and the artist's critical reception and
fortuna.
About the author
Adelina Modesti, former Lecturer in Art History and Theory in the
Faculty of Art and Design, is a specialist in Bolognese Seicento art, and
one of the world's leading authorities on the life and works of Elisabetta
Sirani on whom she has published numerous articles since 1995. Her
monograph, the first in-depth study of the artist, is the result of a decade
of archival research as a doctoral candidate with the Department of Visual
Culture (Arts Faculty).
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