Violante Beatrice Siries (1709–1783) was an Italian painter. She was born in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

and studied under

Hyacinthe Rigaud Jacint Rigau-Ros i Serra (; 18 July 1659 – 29 December 1743), known in French as Hyacinthe Rigaud (), was a Catalan-French baroque painter most famous for his portraits of Louis XIV and other members of the French nobility. Biography Rigaud ...

and

François Boucher François Boucher ( , ; ; 29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories ...

in Paris from 1726. Returning later to Florence she married Giuseppe Cerroti and continued her artistic studies under

Conti Conti is an Italian surname. Geographical distribution As of 2014, 63.5% of all known bearers of the surname ''Conti'' were residents of Italy (frequency 1:756), 11.8% of the United States (1:24,071), 9.2% of Brazil (1:17,439), 6.3% of Argentina ...

. Siries was talented in several genres, but established herself as a famous portraitist. She succeeded in gaining the

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

age of the

Medici family The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...

and their financial partners the

Gondi family The Florentine banking family of the Gondi were prominent financial partners of the Medici. Unlike the Medici, they were of the old Florentine nobility, tracing their line traditionally from the legendary Philippi, said to have been ennobled by Cha ...

in Florence after the death of

Giovanna Fratellini Giovanna Fratellini (1666 – 1731) was a Florentine artist during the Baroque period. Born in Florence as Giovanna Marrmocchini Cortesi, she married Guiliano Fratellini in 1685 and changed her name to Fratellini.Fortune, Jane, and Linda Falcone. ...

(1731) and travelled to Rome and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

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 Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina (german: Maria Theresia; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was ruler of the Habsburg monarchy, Habsburg dominions from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position ''suo jure'' ( ...

(1735), and three of her self-portraits are preserved in the

Uffizi Gallery The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

. In later life Siries became a respected teacher and her pupils included

Anna Bacherini Piattoli Anna Bacherini Piattoli (1720–1788) was an Italian painter. Biography Born in Florence, Piattoli studied with Francesco Ciaminghi, Francesco Conti, and Violante Beatrice Siries. She married the painter Gaetano Piattoli in 1741; the couple's s ...

. At least one of her self-portraits is part of the Uffizi Gallery's collection. She is one of the artists whose art is being worked on being restored by the

Advancing Women Artists Foundation Advancing Women Artists Foundation (AWA) was an American not-for-profit organization (501(c)3), with headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Florence, Italy. AWA is committed to identifying and restoring artwork by Florence's female artists i ...

. 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 A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician. Nota ...

'' (leaning on her sewing box). * ''

Saint Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a Mysticism, mystic Italian Catholic Church, Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most vener ...

* ''Young women portrait'', ''circa'' 1735 * ''Captain E. Hughes'' * ''The Virgin Mary presenting the Baby Jesus to Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi'' : for a better reproduction se

* ''Double portrait of Peter Leopold of Habsburg and Maria Luisa if Spain''.Oil on canva

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References

Further reading