Getty and Lund Humphries Present Two New Titles in Illuminating Women Artists Series

Rosalba Carriera and Elisabetta Sirani are the next books in the Illuminating Women Artists series published in partnership with UK publisher Lund Humphries.

Elisabetta Sirani

Elisabetta Sirani (1638–1665)—painter, printmaker, and teacher—was one of the most innovative and prolific artists of the Bolognese school. The daughter of a painter, she hailed from a city whose university was believed to have educated women since the Middle Ages and that celebrated the cult of Saint Catherine of Bologna, who was known for her skill as a painter and illuminator—ideal conditions to encourage the training and patronage of skilled women artists.

Drawing on extensive archival documentation and primary sources, including inventories, sale catalogues, and Sirani’s work diary, Elisabetta Sirani provides an overview of the brief life, fascinating oeuvre, critical fortune, and cultural legacy of this successful Baroque artist. Art historian Adelina Modesti vividly describes the society that both inhibited and supported Sirani, examining her influence on students at Bologna’s school for professional women artists as well as her significance in the professionalization of women’s artistic practice during the 17th century.

Rosalba Carriera

Born in Venice in 1673 to a lawyer and a lace maker, Rosalba Carriera began her career painting decorative objects and rose to international renown as a portraitist in Italy, Germany, France, and England. In 1757 she died nearly blind from cataracts, a tragic end for a painter acclaimed for exquisite miniatures and innovative pastels. During the 1700s she was deemed “the most talented female artist of our century,” so famous that she was referred to by her first name only. Today, however, she is little known outside Venice, despite the attribution to her of more than 700 surviving artworks.

Rosalba Carriera is an accessibly written, gorgeously illustrated biography which surveys Carriera’s career, considering her miniatures alongside better-known works of larger scale. Interpreting her oeuvre against the historical context of her experience as a single woman in Venice, the book takes readers through the full arc of her life, including the people she met, her clients, and her artistic approach. Author Angela Oberer’s original iconographic analysis of some of Carriera’s work reveals that she was an erudite painter who drew on antiquity as well as Renaissance precedents such as Leonardo da Vinci and Paolo Veronese. Published in conjunction with the 350th anniversary of her birth, this book is a long overdue tribute to an important and prolific artist.

Illuminating Women Artists

The Illuminating Women Artists series launches at a critical moment in our culture. It is a significant contribution to a movement underway—among scholars, museums, art dealers and collectors, and the wider world of cultural heritage—to reassess the contributions of women artists.

Beautifully illustrated, this series is the first to focus in a deliberate and sustained way on women artists throughout history, to recognize their accomplishments, to revive their name recognition, and to make their works better known to art enthusiasts of the 21st century.

Author Information

Angela Oberer is a lecturer in art history with a PhD from the Technische Universität Berlin. She has written and lectured extensively on the work of Rosalba Carriera.

Adelina Modesti is an honorary senior fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Modesti has published numerous essays and articles on Elisabetta Sirani, Artemisia Gentileschi, and other women artists and patrons.

Publication Information

Rosalba Carriera
Angela Oberer
144 pages, 7½ x 9⅞ inches
66 color illustrations
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-60606-860-1
$45
Publication date: June 27, 2023

Rosalba Carriera - Getty Museum Store

Elisabetta Sirani
Adelina Modesti
144 pages, 7½ x 9⅞ inches
77 color illustrations
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-60606-817-5
$45
Publication date: June 27, 2023

Elisabetta Sirani - Getty Museum Store

Endorsements

In this beautifully produced volume, Angela Oberer presents an engaging picture of the inherent sociability that animated the art of Rosalba Carriera and its phenomenal success across Europe. Moreover, the author’s descriptions capture the sensuous haptic appeal of the miniatures and pastels that captivated her patrons and visitors, thereby extending their implied intimacy to viewers and readers today.Tracy Cooper, Professor of Art History, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University  

This authoritative and indispensable book launches new insights in art history and gender studies. Adelina Modesti’s narrative is not limited to the artist’s life and production, but takes us by the hand and brings the reader into the historic, cultural and social environment of Baroque Bologna. Modesti shows Sirani’s artistic accomplishment to be a consequence of a broader stimulating setting, where an unexpected number of patrons, agents, and collectors support her with the same straightforwardness and willingness as for a male artist.Consuelo Lollobrigida, MA, PhD Art Historian, University of Arkansas, Rome Program