Active for a period of just ten years before her premature death at the age of twenty-seven, Elisabetta Sirani produced around two hundred paintings, fifteen prints and numerous drawings during her lifetime. She received her artistic training in the studio of her father, Giovanni Andrea Sirani (1610–1670), a pupil and collaborator of Guido Reni (1575–1642). G. A. Sirani was a scholarly man and professor at the Accademia pubblica del nudo, Bologna’s academy of the nude. He maintained a well-stocked library, with which his daughter was able to familiarise herself with the ancient classics – a source of inspiration for her works that touch on mythology, literature, allegory and the Bible.

E. Sirani’s inventiveness is immediately apparent when we examine her repertoire, which encompasses a range of subjects that place heroines like Judith (1658), Portia (1664) and Cleopatra (1664) at the heart of unconventional iconographies, as well as sacred themes and portraits. Her entire production is meticulously described in the register Nota delle Pitture fatte da me Elisabetta Sirani, which was published after her death by Carlo Cesare Malvasia in his 1678 biography of the artist in the Felsina Pittrice. He describes a drawing style characterised by a free and confident use of brush and diluted ink, evident in the few drawings that survive today, most notably in the Louvre collection.

In her time, E. Sirani’s artistic talent marked her out as an extraordinary woman. Over a one-year period in 1658, aged only twenty, she executed a monumental work for the church of San Girolamo della Certosa. This Baptism of Christ marked her official entrance into the artistic milieu of the city of Bologna, and greatly impressed the public with its dynamism and contrasting light effects. It was soon followed by numerous commissions for small- and medium-format works, often intended for private devotion.

In 1660, E. Sirani was made a professor at Rome’s Accademia d’arte di San Luca. The position entitled her to direct her own atelier in Bologna as a maestra, where she exclusively received women students, including her two sisters Barbara (1641–1692) and Anna Maria (1652–1715), as well as Veronica Fontana (1651–1690), Lucrezia Scarfaglia (active around 1677–1678), Teresa Coriolano (around 1620– ?) and Ginevra Cantofoli (1618–1672): the latter would become her assistant. In taking on the instruction of these women in drawing and painting, at a time when young students were traditionally taught by a male family member, E. Sirani introduced a new didactic model in Bologna, a city open to and tolerant of the idea of women’s education. In 1662 she also took over her father’s atelier when he was forced to renounce his artistic activity due to suffering from gout, where she oversaw the training of apprentices, managed collaborations and secured the livelihood of the entire Sirani family.

E. Sirani’s output was admired beyond the city walls, notably in Florence by Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici, one of the most important collectors of the time. Following her sudden death from suspected poisoning, which was later discovered to be an ulcer, the city paid tribute to the departed Virtuosa with a solemn funeral at the church of San Domenico, where she lies buried in the Rosary chapel alongside Guido Reni.