Artist Profile: Elisabetta Sirani
Portia Wounding Her Thigh, 1664 at Collezioni d'Arte e di Storia della Fondazione Carisbo, Bologna
Spotlight on Elisabetta Sirani, who was a pioneering Italian artist working during the Baroque era.
She is perhaps most well known for her powerful images depicting victims of rape, murdering their attackers.
Born 8 January 1638 in Bologna into a family of Artists, she overshadowed her father and two sisters who were also painters.
Bologna had a progressive atmosphere, which enabled her to start her own school teaching other female artists. She became her family’s primary breadwinner as the school became more popular and her commissions grew.
A twist to her story came however, as the highly regarded artist died due to unexplained circumstances at age 27.
