This page is referenced by:

• 1 2020-10-14T21:51:03+00:00 Tia Lumer Essay I 15 Elisabetta Sirani, Portia Wounding Her Thigh, 1664 plain 2021-01-01T03:17:40+00:00          Elisabetta Sirani was born in Bologna, Italy on January 8, 1638. She was one of four siblings to parents Margherita and Giovanni Andrea, who was a famous painter himself. During the Baroque era, Sirani became one of more prominent female artists in Bologna where she created over 200 pieces of art.[1] In particular, Sirani’s 1664 Portia Wounding Her Thigh, has become one of her more well-known pieces of her collection as she demonstrates the female power struggle. 
           In Linda Nochlin’s “Why have there been no great Women Artists?”, she demonstrates the level of difficulty that female artists had to endure to be able to succeed. For example, women artists were not given the opportunity to create nude artwork as nude models were not available for female artists.[2] Ironically, the majority of individuals who pose for nude art are female, yet men are the only ones with the opportunity to explore this avenue of art. However, while the majority female artists may have been struggling to establish themselves, Sirani was fortunate that Bologna was slightly more progressive than other cities, allowing her to flourish and continue building her collection.[3]
  
           As mentioned above, success as a female artist during this time was not the easiest. That being said, Sirani may have had a slight advantage as her father, Giovanni Andrea, was already a very well-known painter at the time. However, if it was not for Carlo Cesare Malvasia, a personal acquaintance of the family, Sirani’s father may not have been open to the idea of teaching his daughter the ins and outs of Bolognese paintings. It is quite possible that the reason for her father not wanting to teach Elisabetta was because he was afraid that her work would overshadow his own- once again demonstrating the female struggle in the art world. Regardless of her father’s hesitation, at the early age of 16, Sirani became the main family provider when her father became severely ill with Gout. 
          Sirani’s piece, Portia Wounding Her Thigh, created in 1664 describes the behind the scenes of the infamous scene of the killing of Julius Caesar. Specifically, this piece exhibits Portia’s struggle to prove to her husband, Brutus, that she too can be trusted to know the plan of Caesar’s assassination. According to Plutarch, the original storyteller, Portia had suspicions that her husband was contemplating the assassination of Julius Caesar.[4] However, Brutus refused to confide in her because of his fear that she would divulge the plans if she were to ever be tortured for information. To prove to Brutus that she could handle physical pain, and therefore be trusted, Portia stabs her thigh with a dagger and suffers great pain, chills, and a fever in silence. This common theme of women being weaker, both physically and mentally, is what lead Sirani to illustrate this scene in such a way that shows the female struggle to be seen as an equal. 
  
           The painting itself consists of one woman, Portia, in the forefront of the piece. She is shown wearing a red elegant gown of some sort with jewels draped around her and her hair pinned up. Her royal blue stockings with gold embellishments are pulled halfway up her calf, revealing her thigh from under her dress. A dark green wall separates Portia from the other three women who are placed in the background in a smaller scale. Unlike Portia, the three women sitting in a circle can be seen participating in common homemaking duties such as sewing and even possibly gossiping among one another. The majority of the piece is painted red, symbolizing strength and ambition. The other colors, such as dark green and royal blue, are small components that add to the overall power of the piece. Such colors also provide a vast contrast between Portia, her fair skin specifically, and the rest of the piece’s atmosphere. Portia is seen sitting with her right leg resting on a chair, exposing her thigh, as she grips the blade tightly in her right hand. She stares down at her thigh, watching the blood spill out, with a blank expression on her face. The color contrast between Portia’s pale skin and the bright red blood on her thigh places an even stronger symbolic meaning on Portia’s decision to stab herself. Sirani also demonstrates Portia’s commitment to Brutus by physically separating her from the other women, lending to the idea that women had to separate themselves from their sex in order to gain any real respect from their peers.[5]
           Signore Simone Tassi, a wealthy a silk merchant from Bologna, commissioned Sirani to create a piece that he could hang in his private home.[6] During this time, it was common for women to be sexualized and objectified. Therefore, when Sirani was painting Portia Wounding Her Thighfor Simone Tassi, she had to be consciousness to include the “traditional” sexualization of women. That being said, Sirani was able to maintain the story line and draw from her past to find a connection to the painting. The allusion to Sirani through Portia is depicted in their clothing choices. As opposed to Portia dressed in traditional Ancient Roman clothing, Sirani chooses to clothe Portia in attire more closely connected with Sirani’s era.
           Similar to Brutus not trusting Portia because she was female, Sirani’s father had no desire to help his daughter for fear that she, a female, would succeed him and his art. Both Sirani and Portia had to work to prove themselves as virtuous and worthy females. Sirani had to demonstrate to the world over and over again that she was talented and deserved to be taken seriously. Portia on the other hand had to prove to Brutus that she could withstand physical pain in order for him to trust her with the details of his assassination plan. In addition, Elisabetta portrayed her own feelings of gender inequality in that both Elisabetta and Portia are unwilling to be subordinates to male figures. 
  
          Sirani continued to work hard and prove herself as a female painter. She was so skilled in the studio that she was able to complete pieces in record time, leading many to believe that she had help from her father. In hopes of preventing confusion of rightful ownership, Sirani began painting in public to prove that it was really her work. Sirani also got into the habit of signing her pieces to avoid the possibility that a male artist would once again try to take credit for her work. Sirani recognized the hardships females had to face in the art world and in 1652, she opened her very own art school for women, particularly for those who did not come from a family of artists. Unfortunately, at the age of 27, Elisabetta Sirani died due to unknown circumstances.[7] Andrea Sirani, Elisabetta’s father, believed that Elisabetta’s death was result of their maid’s attempt to poison Elisabetta. Nevertheless, the maid was acquitted and Sirani was honored by the city for her work with an elaborate funeral.
           Elisabetta Sirani did not always thrive in the art world. She struggled to establish herself as a female artist as she battled against her own father and his dominant male tendencies that originally caused him to overlook his daughter’s talent. Portia Wounding Her Thigh became known as a political piece of Sirani’s as she describes the great lengths women must go to in order to be taken seriously- including inflicting physical pain onto oneself.