Elisabetta Sirani
Adelina Modesti
This insightful volume is the first authoritative and accessible English-language book to explore the life and legacy of Elisabetta Sirani, one of the most celebrated women artists of the seventeenth-century.
Elisabetta Sirani (1638–1665)—painter, printmaker, and teacher—was one of the most innovative and prolific artists of the Bolognese school. The daughter of a painter, she hailed from a city whose university had educated women since the Middle Ages and that celebrated the cult of Saint Catherine of Bologna, who was known for her skill as a painter and illuminator—ideal conditions to encourage the training and patronage of skilled women artists.
Drawing on extensive archival documentation and primary sources, including inventories, sale catalogues, and Sirani’s work diary, this book provides an overview of the brief life, fascinating oeuvre, critical fortune, and cultural legacy of this successful Renaissance painter. Art historian Adelina Modesti vividly describes the society that both inhibited and supported Sirani, examining her influence on students at Bologna’s school for professional women artists as well as her significance in the professionalization of women’s artistic practice during the seventeenth century.
Gorgeously illustrated throughout, this book focuses on women’s agency. More specifically, it explores Sirani’s identity as both a woman and an artist, including her professional ambition, self-fashioning, and literary construction as Bologna’s preeminent cultural heroine.
The La Trobe Art History Alumni and Friends are hosting a book launch at La Trobe University on Thursday 10 August in the Nancy Millis Room, Union Building from 12.30 until 2 pm.
Dr Adelina Modesti (University of Melbourne, and La Trobe Art History Committee Member) will launch her latest book, Elisabetta Sirani, Getty / Lund Humphries, 2023.
There will be short presentations by Dr Esther Theiler, Professor Anne Dunlop, from the University of Melbourne, and the author.
According to Art Historian Consuelo Lollobrigida, “This authoritative and indispensable book launches new insights in art history and gender studies.” Adelina Modesti’s important and riveting study of the Bolognese artist Elisabetta Sirani’s life and work unearths new material about the success of her practice in a male dominated field in the context of the unusually supportive atmosphere of seventeenth-century Bologna for professional women.
The launch will take place in the Nancy Millis Room, Union Building, La Trobe University, from 12.30 until 2.00. Refreshments will be provided.
If you would like to attend, please contact Sam Hawkins, Alumni Advancement Officer, on his email address: sam.hawkins@latrobe.edu.au
144 pages
7½ × 97/8; 250 × 190 mm
76 illustrations
Hardcover
US $45.00; 978-1-60606-817-5
UK £35.00; 978-1-84822-797-1
Available in North America
shop.getty.edu
Available rest of world
lundhumphries.com
Distributed in Australia by Woodslane
woodslane.com/au