Elisabetta Sirani - The Penitent Magdalene
Elisabetta Sirani
The Penitent Magdalene
Oil on canvas (relined). 128 x 102 cm.
Both the art historian Donatella Biagi Maino, who teaches in Bologna, and Adelina Modesti, the author of the first monograph on the painter, have independently identified this "Mary Magdalene" as a work by Elisabetta Sirani.
For both experts, it is an early work by Sirani, which preceded a later and smaller version of the motif. Elisabetta Sirani painted this later version on copper for her patron Padre Ettore Ghisilieri. It is now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna (inv. no. 376).
Both experts explain the early dating of the present work with the still clearly perceptible influence of Guido Reni, especially in the typology of the figure. For this reason, according to Adelina Modesti, the painting could have been created in Reni's workshop, where her father Giovanni Andrea Sirani also worked. Elisabetta's painting style in this work is characterised by the fluidity of her hand, which is particularly noticeable in the landscape detail, the hands, the skull and especially in the saint's flowing hair. Such productions, executed by several painters, were common practice in Guido Reni's workshop.
Elisabetta Sirani became one of the most innovative and productive artists of the Bolognese school. As a child of a city whose university had been educating women since the Middle Ages and which celebrated the cult of St Catherine of Bologna, known for her skills as a painter and illuminator, she also had particularly good prerequisites for an artistic career in general.
Certificate
Donatella Biagi Maino, Bologne, 10 September 2013. - Dr Adelina Modesti, Melbourne 2014.
Provenance
Christie's Rome, 17.10.1985, Lot173, (as school of Guido Reni).- Private collection Italy.
Literature
About the artist: Adelina Modesti: Elisabetta Sirani, Una Virtuosa del Seicento Bolognese, 2004. - Adelina Modesti: Elisabetta Sirani "Virtuosa". Women´s Cultural Production in Early Modern Bologna, Turnhout 2013, nos. 49, S. 273 (note).
Elisabetta Sirani
The Penitent Magdalene
Oil on canvas (relined). 128 x 102 cm.
Both the art historian Donatella Biagi Maino, who teaches in Bologna, and Adelina Modesti, the author of the first monograph on the painter, have independently identified this "Mary Magdalene" as a work by Elisabetta Sirani.
For both experts, it is an early work by Sirani, which preceded a later and smaller version of the motif. Elisabetta Sirani painted this later version on copper for her patron Padre Ettore Ghisilieri. It is now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna (inv. no. 376).
Both experts explain the early dating of the present work with the still clearly perceptible influence of Guido Reni, especially in the typology of the figure. For this reason, according to Adelina Modesti, the painting could have been created in Reni's workshop, where her father Giovanni Andrea Sirani also worked. Elisabetta's painting style in this work is characterised by the fluidity of her hand, which is particularly noticeable in the landscape detail, the hands, the skull and especially in the saint's flowing hair. Such productions, executed by several painters, were common practice in Guido Reni's workshop.
Elisabetta Sirani became one of the most innovative and productive artists of the Bolognese school. As a child of a city whose university had been educating women since the Middle Ages and which celebrated the cult of St Catherine of Bologna, known for her skills as a painter and illuminator, she also had particularly good prerequisites for an artistic career in general.
Certificate
Donatella Biagi Maino, Bologne, 10 September 2013. - Dr Adelina Modesti, Melbourne 2014.
Provenance
Christie's Rome, 17.10.1985, Lot173, (as school of Guido Reni).- Private collection Italy.
Literature
About the artist: Adelina Modesti: Elisabetta Sirani, Una Virtuosa del Seicento Bolognese, 2004. - Adelina Modesti: Elisabetta Sirani "Virtuosa". Women´s Cultural Production in Early Modern Bologna, Turnhout 2013, nos. 49, S. 273 (note).
