Elisabetta Sirani (8 January 1638 – 28 August 1665) was an Italian Baroque painter and printmaker who died in unexplained circumstances at the age of 27.

He did not produce many works during his lifetime; instead, he took over Reni's job as a teacher, and became the master in the first life school held in the house of Ettore Ghislieri.

The art biographer Carlo Cesare Malvasia, a personal acquaintance of the Sirani family, claimed credit for recognizing Elisabetta's talent and persuading her father to train her as a painter, although this was likely self-aggrandizing.

[4] Sirani's biography is included in Malvasia's two-volume Felsina pittrice: vite de’pittori bolognesi, or Lives of the Bolognese Painters, first published in 1678.

[6] Throughout, he praises the originality of her compositions, her style of drawing, her fast manner of working and her professionalism, contrasting her with Lavinia Fontana, an earlier Bolognese woman painter whom he describes as timid.

[7] In establishing her painting style, Sirani studied the works of Annibale Carracci, Lorenzo Pasinelli, Desubleo, Simone Cantarini, and Cignani.

Sirani received her first commission in her teens, a Baptism of Christ, which was a companion piece to an earlier done painting by her father at the Campo Santo of Bologna.

[10] Laura Ragg comments that Sirani died at "an age regarded as young indeed for death, but hopelessly late for marriage."

Malvasia suggests that it was not poisoning but a condition that arose spontaneously in the body of a “vivacious and spirited woman, concealing to the highest degree her craving for a perhaps coveted husband denied to her by her father.” A city official at the time wrote that “She is mourned by all.

[14] Not only was Elisabetta Sirani the successor of her father's workshop, she was also a great teacher of many, especially contributing to women artists’ development during the Renaissance period.

[18] Sirani produced over 200 paintings, 15 etchings, and hundreds of drawings, making her an extremely prolific artist, especially considering her early death.

[23] Around 1660, she began focusing extensively on small-scale devotional images, particularly the Virgin and Child and Holy Family, which were enormously popular with private collectors.

[27] More similarities of her works may be found in the draftsmanship of Ludovico Carracci, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Guercino), and Simone Cantarini (Bohn).

[23] “Sirani made drawings in a variety of media, such as brush and wash, pen and ink with wash, black chalk, red chalk, and a combination of the two.”[20] Her drawings, while done in many different media, usually in pen or brush and ink, display the same brilliance as her paintings, often quickly executed with what Malvasia describes as "nonchalance.

[29] Male nudity was not often attempted by female artists of the time as they did not wish to display their lack of experience from life-drawing (a practice which was typically withheld from them).

The image consists of a somber background and a large Portia clad in red wielding a knife above her already bleeding, exposed thigh.

Modern scholars argue that the necessity of self-mutilation to prove a woman's strength of will in order to have access to her husband's thoughts questions such a feminist reading.

[citation needed] Furthermore, a sadomasochistic sexuality is latent in Portia's exposed thigh, loosened robe, poised knife, and her snake-like headdress.

The seventeenth century was rife with dark, sexual, violent, and disturbing images,[citation needed] so it is not surprising that Sirani chose a heavy, closed atmosphere with somber lighting and rich colours.

[33] Sirani's painting Virgin and Child of 1663, now in the collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., was selected for the United States Postal Service Christmas Holiday Stamp series in October 1994.

Her Herodias with the Head of John the Baptist is featured on the cover of the Canadian technical death metal band Cryptopsy's 1996 album None So Vile.