(Not) Like Other Girls: Elisabetta Sirani’s Secular History Paintings as Self-Portraiture
Description/Abstract/Artist Statement
The Bolognese painter Elisabetta Sirani (1638 – 1665) created a plethora of paintings, including three secular works inspired by classical writings. In paintings such as Timoclea (1659), Cleopatra (1662 – 1663), and Portia Wounding Her Own Thigh (1664), Sirani would focus on the women mentioned in texts written by classical male authors, who were often ignored in favor of the male protagonists. Sirani established herself as a specialist in secular subjects in a time when women were limited to painting subjects deemed appropriate to their gender (portraits, small devotional images, and still lifes), and she was often compared to her male contemporaries regarding her skill and the virtues she embodied. In Heather Elizabeth White’s master’s thesis “Sirani, Iole, and Proto-Feminism in Early Modern Bologna,” Sirani’s series of works inspired by the stories of Iole, Omphale, and Hercules are analyzed through a gendered lens, pointing out the inclusion of Sirani’s allegorical aspects in her work, as well as the artist’s more powerful and masculine heroines. This paper builds on White’s work to investigate Sirani’s nontraditional depictions of Timoclea, Cleopatra, and Portia, and how these paintings serve as allegorical self-portraits, by way of the inclusion of traditionally masculine traits also associated with the artist.
Faculty Advisor/Mentor
Dr. Anne Muraoka
Faculty Advisor/Mentor Department
Art Department
College Affiliation
College of Arts & Letters
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Disciplines
Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture | Women's Studies
Session Title
Art History Session 1 - Women and Art: Critical Re-Assessments
Location
Learning Commons @Perry Library, Room 1306
Start Date
3-30-2024 9:30 AM
End Date
3-30-2024 10:30 AM
(Not) Like Other Girls: Elisabetta Sirani’s Secular History Paintings as Self-Portraiture
Learning Commons @Perry Library, Room 1306
The Bolognese painter Elisabetta Sirani (1638 – 1665) created a plethora of paintings, including three secular works inspired by classical writings. In paintings such as Timoclea (1659), Cleopatra (1662 – 1663), and Portia Wounding Her Own Thigh (1664), Sirani would focus on the women mentioned in texts written by classical male authors, who were often ignored in favor of the male protagonists. Sirani established herself as a specialist in secular subjects in a time when women were limited to painting subjects deemed appropriate to their gender (portraits, small devotional images, and still lifes), and she was often compared to her male contemporaries regarding her skill and the virtues she embodied. In Heather Elizabeth White’s master’s thesis “Sirani, Iole, and Proto-Feminism in Early Modern Bologna,” Sirani’s series of works inspired by the stories of Iole, Omphale, and Hercules are analyzed through a gendered lens, pointing out the inclusion of Sirani’s allegorical aspects in her work, as well as the artist’s more powerful and masculine heroines. This paper builds on White’s work to investigate Sirani’s nontraditional depictions of Timoclea, Cleopatra, and Portia, and how these paintings serve as allegorical self-portraits, by way of the inclusion of traditionally masculine traits also associated with the artist.