Elisabetta Sirani, from Bologna to Melbourne

20/5/26 - Acquisition - Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria - The swallow symbolises the Resurrection, not only because it heralds, with spring, the rebirth of nature, but also because ancient authors attributed to it the ability to restore sight to its young, born blind, thanks to celandine, otherwise known as “swallow-wort”. Its depiction in religious paintings thus echoes the disciples at Emmaus, seated with the risen Christ who broke bread before them, “ then their eyes were opened and they recognised Him ”.
It sometimes happens that the Christ Child, depicted on his mother’s lap, holds a swallow in his plump little hands. He grasps it quite unceremoniously in a painting by Elisabetta Sirani, a private devotional work painted around 1663, recently acquired by the National…