Elisabetta Sirani : una virtuosa del Seicento bolognese

Adelina Modesti
Bologna : Editrice Compositori, c2004

ISBN: 8877944455

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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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