Elisabetta SIRANI
The Madonna and Child with a swallow
(c. 1663)

Medium
oil on canvas

Measurements
82.5 × 59.8 cm

Credit Line
Eva Mandel Bequest, 2026
© Public domain

Gallery location
Not on display

About this work

Bologna-based Elisabetta Sirani was trained by her artist father, who had been the principal assistant of Guido Reni. A gifted artist herself, Sirani took over her father's workshop at the age of seventeen. She was one of the first women artists to be allowed to join the artists’ guild, the Accademia di San Luca, and later achieved renown as a painter before her early death at the age of twenty-seven. This devotional painting was probably undertaken for a private client. The Christ Child holds a swallow, symbolic of the coming of spring, and hence also of Christ's future resurrection.

Artwork Details

Place/s of Execution
Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Department
International Painting

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Elisabetta SIRANI The Madonna and Child with a swallow (c. 1663)

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Elisabetta SIRANI
The Madonna and Child with a swallow
(c. 1663)