The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist

Currently not on view

The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist

1659

Elisabetta Sirani (Italian, 1638–1665)

Elisabetta Sirani was, like her father Giovanni, influenced by Guido Reni, although she never studied with the older master. As one of very few female artists at the time, Elisabetta was apparently regarded as a sort of precocious curiosity. According to an anecdote in a seventeenth-century biography, she once jumped up in the midst of listening to a conversation and drew, in a few fluent strokes, the composition of a painting described by her companions. The delicate freshness of this etching supports the idea that she drew with great facility.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist

Date:

1659

Artist:

Elisabetta Sirani (Italian, 1638–1665)

Medium:

Etching

Dimensions:

Plate: 11 5/8 x 8 11/16 inches (29.6 x 22.1 cm) Sheet: 11 3/4 x 8 13/16 inches (29.9 x 22.4 cm)

Classification:

Prints

Credit Line:

The Muriel and Philip Berman Gift, acquired from the John S. Phillips bequest of 1876 to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, with funds contributed by Muriel and Philip Berman, gifts (by exchange) of Lisa Norris Elkins, Bryant W. Langston, Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White, with additional funds contributed by John Howard McFadden, Jr., Thomas Skelton Harrison, and the Philip H. and A.S.W. Rosenbach Foundation, 1985

Accession Number:

1985-52-26272

Geography:

Made in Bologna, Italy, Europe

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Currently not on view