A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, ArchitectureWaters, Clara Erskine Clement
History
A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture
Waters, Clara Erskine Clement
Art -- History
Her masterpiece is a picture of "St. Anthony Adoring the Virgin and
Child," which is in the Pinacoteca of Bologna. There are pictures by her
in the Belvedere and Lichtenstein Galleries at Vienna, in the Hermitage at
St. Petersburg, and in the Sciarra Palace, Rome.
In person Elisabetta Sirani was beautiful, and her character commanded the
affection of all who knew her. She was a sweet singer, and her biographers
increase her virtues by praising her taste in dress, and even her
moderation in eating! She was skilful in domestic affairs, and was in the
habit of rising early to perform her share in the household duties, never
allowing her art to displace any occupation which properly made a part of
her life. Her name has come down through more than two centuries as one
whose "devoted filial affection, feminine grace, and artless benignity of
manner added a lustre to her great talents, and completed a personality
which her friends regarded as an ideal of perfection."
She died very suddenly, and the cause of her death has never been known;
but the theory that she was poisoned has been generally accepted. Several
reasons for the crime have been given; one is that she was the victim of
jealous artists, as Domenichino had been; another, that a princely lover
whom she had scorned thus revenged himself. A servant-girl in her family
was suspected of the crime, tried, and banished; but after a time she was
recalled to Bologna at the request of the father of Elisabetta, for he saw
no proof of the girl's guilt. Thus the mystery was never solved, but the
whole city of Bologna was saddened by her death. The day of her burial was
one of public mourning; her funeral was attended with great pomp, and she
was buried beside Guido Reni in the splendid church of the Dominicans.
Poems and orations in her praise were numerous, and a book was published,
called "Il Penello Lagrimate," which contained these, with odes, anagrams,
and epitaphs, in both Latin and Italian, all setting forth her charms and
virtues. Her portrait in the Ercolani Gallery at Bologna represents her
when occupied in painting her father's portrait; according to this picture
she had a tall, elegant figure, and a very pretty face. She had two
sisters, Barbara and Anna Maria, who also were artists, but her fame was
so much greater than theirs that she quite overshadowed them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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