Catalogue Roberti Fine Art, TEFAF Maastricht 2026 (1) compressed - Flipbook - Page 98
The small oval painting, executed on a copper plate,
shares
certain
features
with
the
compositions
of
Elisabetta Sirani (1638-1665), although the more delicate
and less decisive handling suggests an artist in her
immediate circle.
The composition is, in fact, partially inspired by an early
work by Elisabetta which was in a private collection in
Reggio Emilia some ten years ago (fig. 1). That work was
painted in collaboration with her father, Giovanni Andrea,
to whom the figure of Saint Joseph alone should be
attributed.
Other similar inventions belong to the same creative
period in Elisabetta’s career, such as the Holy Family with
Saint John the Baptist known through an engraving (fig. 2),
Fig. 1. Elisabetta and Giovanni Andrea Sirani,
The Holy Family. Private collection.
of which a painted version survives in the Pinacoteca
Nazionale in Bologna (fig. 3). This painted derivation
should be attributed to one of Elisabetta’s collaborators,
her sister Barbara.
Fig. 2. Elisabetta Sirani, The Holy Family with the Virgin clasping the arm
of the infant John the Baptist, 1659. etching, sheet (cut to oval) 163 x 138
mm. British Museum, London.
Fig. 3. Barbara Sirani, The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist
(after Elisabetta’s engraving). oil on copper. Pinacoteca
Nazionale, Bologna.
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