“The Gallery. Collection and Historical Archive ”of BPER Banca presents, from 17 September to 14 November 2021, the exhibition“ Elisabetta Sirani. Virtuous woman, heroine painter ”, edited by Lucia Peruzzi.

The exhibition, which will be inaugurated on the occasion of the 21st edition of festivalfilosofia, of which BPER Banca is the main sponsor for the second consecutive year, addresses the theme of "freedom" through the works of Elisabetta Sirani (Bologna, 1638-1665), artist celebrated by contemporaries and sought after by the greatest collectors of the seventeenth century, capable of affirming their freedom and professional autonomy by founding the first art academy for young women in a society where artistic activity was essentially a male prerogative and women were relegated to the practice of the "minor arts".

The exhibition consists of four works belonging to the BPER Banca collection and five paintings from private Emilian collections.

The exhibition itinerary starts from the origins with the work "Sleeping Love" by Guido Reni, of which Giovanni Andrea Sirani, Elisabetta's father, was a pupil, represented by the painting "The Earth gives Neptune the tulip bulbs", both belonging to the collection of BPER Banca. His technique and his teachings are collected by the young Elizabeth and we find them in the paintings "Madonna nursing the Child", "San Giovannino in the desert", "Amor vincit omnia", "Holy Family with Santa Teresa", "Venus and Cupid" and "Circe". Finally, the narration ends with the opera “Sibilla” by Ginevra Cantofoli, a student of Sirani.