Violante Siries Cerroti

Violante Beatrice Siries (1709–1783) was an Italian painter. She was born in Florence and studied with Giovanna Fratellini and the sculptor Filippo della Valle. After moving to Paris in 1726 she studied under Hyacinthe Rigaud and François Boucher. Upon returning to Florence she married Giuseppe Cerroti, about whom nothing is known, and continued her artistic studies under Francesco Conti.

Life and work

Violante was the daughter of Louis Siries, a French man who became the director of the Opificio delle pietre dure (workshop of precious stones).

Violante was talented in several genres, but established herself as a portraitist. She succeeded in gaining the patronage of the Medici family, notably including Gian Gastone de' Medici. After the death of Giovanna Fratellini in 1731, she also received support from the Medici's financial partners, the Gondi family. Violante returned to Florence in 1732 and was accepted into the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno. She often travelled to Rome and Vienna to execute commissions.

Her most ambitious work was a fourteen figure family group of the Emperor Charles VI, the father of Maria Theresa of Austria (1735). Three of her self-portraits are preserved in the Uffizi Gallery. Violante was the first female artist given permission by the Uffizi to copy the works of old masters.

Violante's depiction of Saint Francis of Assisi (1765) was in the ex-convent of Cappuccini of Montevarchi, and now can be found in Museo dei Cappuccini.

''The Virgin Mary Presenting the Baby Jesus to Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi (1767)'' was damaged in the 1966 flood of the Arno and later restored from 2015-2016 by Florence based American organization Advancing Women Artists Foundation. This work is a copy a work by Luca Giordano.

In later life she became a respected teacher. Her pupils included Anna Bacherini Piattoli and Maria Cosway.

She is one of the artists whose works are being restored by the Advancing Women Artists Foundation. She was also mentioned in Jane Fortune's book '' Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence'', which discusses female Florentine artists.

Among her paintings :
* ''The Sleeping Seamstress'' (leaning on her sewing box).
* ''Saint Francis of Assisi''
* ''Young Ladies in a Garden Landscape''
* ''Captain Edward Hughes''Full-length portrait. She also created a half-length with him holding a telescope, belonging to the National Trust, Tredegar Housebr>
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* ''The Virgin Mary Presenting the Baby Jesus to Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi.''
* ''Double portrait of Peter Leopold of Habsburg and Maria Luisa of Spain''

Selected paintings

File:Siries-Ladies.jpg, Young Ladies in a Garden Landscape (c.1735)
File:Claude Alexandre de Bonneval by Violante Beatrice Siries.jpg, Count Claude Alexandre de Bonneval (1750)
File:Captain Sir Edward Hughes, circa 1720-94 RMG BHC2793.tiff, Captain Edward Hughes (1761)
File:Siries Cerroti San Francesco Assisi.jpg, Saint Francis of Assisi (1765)
File:Siries-Mary.jpg, The Virgin Mary Presenting the Baby Jesus to Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi (1767)
File:Siries-Reading.jpg, Young Man Reading the ''Notizia del Disegno'' (1775)

References

Further reading

* Germaine Greer; ''The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work'', Tauris (2001)

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siries, Violante Beatrice
1709 births
1783 deaths
18th-century Italian painters
Painters from Florence
18th-century Italian women painters