Holy Family with St. Elizabeth and St. John the Baptist

Elisabetta Sirani was an Italian Baroque painter, whose father was the painter Giovanni Andrea Sirani of the School of Bologna.

Sirani spent her life in Bologna, a city famous for its progressive attitude toward women’s rights and for producing successful female artists. She apprenticed to her father at a young age but when he became incapacitated when she was 19 she ran her family’s workshop, supporting her parents, three siblings, and herself entirely through her art. Sirani also opened a studio for women artists, which was a completely new idea for its time.

According to written records, when she died at 27, Sirani had already produced 200 paintings, drawings, and etchings in addition to leaving a legacy through her teaching. Her pupils included her two sisters, Barbara and Anna Maria, and more than a dozen other young women who became professional painters.