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Elisabetta Sirani
The Madonna and Child with a swallow (c. 1663)
oil on canvas
82.5 × 59.8 cm
Eva Mandel Bequest, 2026
© Public domain
Photo: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
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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, Elisabetta 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 27.
This devotional painting was probably undertaken for a private client. The Christ child here holds a swallow, symbolic of the coming of spring and rebirth, and hence also of Christ’s future resurrection.