Saint Eustace

by 1654

Takes over the family workshop

By 1654 her father is incapacitated by gout and can no longer work, and Elisabetta takes over the running of the workshop: she becomes the family’s main breadwinner, living on teaching fees and portrait commissions. The studio thrives, helped by the progressive atmosphere of Bologna, where women artists were accepted and celebrated; her sisters Barbara and Anna Maria serve as her assistants.

1655

Begins a notebook of her works

By seventeen she is an accomplished painter and printmaker; from 1655 she meticulously records all her paintings and their patrons in a notebook, and these records found their way into Malvasia’s biography. Many of her paintings are signed, which was uncommon among her male counterparts — perhaps so that they would not be confused with her father’s.

28 February 1657

First major public commission

At nineteen she receives her first major public commission, from Daniele Granchi, prior of the Carthusian church of the Certosa di Bologna; she will go on to paint at least thirteen public altarpieces.