Catalogue Roberti Fine Art, TEFAF Maastricht 2026 (1) compressed - Flipbook - Page 100
Fig. 8. Barbara Sirani, Madonna and Child. Diocesi, Bologna.
Fig. 9. Barbara Sirani, Madonna and Child. red chalk on cream paper,
darkened to gray, 17.4 x 15.6 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
These few secure works in the catalogue of Elisabetta’s two younger sisters allow for certain
additional considerations, which I have set out in greater detail in my recent publication (M. Pulini,
Il Diario di Elisabetta Sirani, Rimini 2025). They also make it possible to advance some further
credible attributions to the two young pupils of the women’s academy which Elisabetta established
in her home in Via Urbana in Bologna.
I believe that a Madonna and Child (fig. 8) in the Diocese of Bologna should be attributed to
Barbara: the Child displays features very similar to those of the two Children in the present copper.
The same applies to a drawing (fig. 9) in the extensive collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York, in which Elisabetta’s influence is even more clearly perceptible. By contrast, stronger
stylistic influence from their father can be observed in another Madonna and Child that was
recently on the art market in Rome. After Elisabetta’s sudden death, both Barbara and Anna Maria
became collaborators of Giovanni Andrea.
While I am aware that the historical context requires further clarification, having carried out
extensive and systematic research for my monograph devoted to Elisabetta and her artistic milieu,
I consider it important to bring to light these attributions to Barbara and Anna Maria.
As for the possible dating of the present small copper, it may be an early work, dating from the
late 1650s, painted not long after the aforementioned prototype (fig. 1) by Elisabetta and Giovanni
Andrea.
Translated from Massimo Pulini’s original Italian text.
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