Elisabetta Sirani

Elisabetta SiraniElisabetta Sirani of Bologna (1638 1665) was one of the most innovative and prolific artists of the Bolognese School. Not only a painter, she was also a printmaker and a teacher. Based on extensive archival documentation and primary sources _" including inventories, sale catalogues and her work diary _" Elisabetta SiraniAprovides an overview of the life, work, critical fortune and legacy of this successful Baroque artist. Placing her within the

Elisabetta Sirani of Bologna (1638-1665) was one of the most innovative and prolific artists of the Bolognese School. Not only a painter, she was also a printmaker and a teacher. Based on extensive archival documentation and primary sources �_" including inventories, sale catalogues and her work diary �_" Elisabetta SiraniA�provides an overview of the life, work, critical fortune and legacy of this successful Baroque artist. Placing her within the context of the post-Tridentine society that both inhibited and supported her, Modesti examines Sirani's influence on many of the artists studying at Bologna's school for professional women artists, as well as her significance in the professionalisation of women�_Ts artistic practice in the seventeenth century. Beautifully illustrated throughout, Elisabetta SiraniA�focuses on women�_Ts agency. More specifically, it explores Sirani�_Ts identity as both a woman and an artist, including her professional ambition, self-fashioning and literary construction as Bologna�_Ts pre-eminent cultural heroine.