It may be that her tragic fate caused an exaggerated estimate to be made of her both as a woman and an artist.  The actual cause of her death is unknown.  There have been many theories concerning it.  It was very generally believed that she was poisoned, although neither the reason for the crime nor the name of its perpetrator was known.

By some she was believed to have been sacrificed to the same professional jealousy that destroyed Domenichino; others accepted the theory that a princely lover who had made unworthy proposals to her, which she had scorned, had revenged himself by her murder.  At length a servant, Lucia Tolomelli, who had been a long time in the Sirani family, was suspected of having poisoned her young mistress, was arrested, tried, and banished.  But after a time the father of Elisabetta, finding no convincing reason to believe her guilty, obtained her pardon.

Whatever may have been the cause of the artist’s death, the effect upon her native city was overwhelming and the day of her burial was one of general mourning, the ceremony being attended with great pomp.  She was buried beside Guido Reni, in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary, in the magnificent Church of the Dominicans.

Poets and orators vied with each other in sounding her praises, and a book called “Il Penello Lagrimato,” published at Bologna soon after her death, is a collection of orations, sonnets, odes, epitaphs, and anagrams, in Latin and Italian, setting forth the love which her native city bore to this beautiful woman, and rehearsing again and again her charms and her virtues.

In the Ercolani Gallery there is a picture of Elisabetta painting a portrait of her father.  It is said that she also painted a portrait of herself looking up with a spiritual expression, which is in a private collection and seen by few people.

SMITH, JESSIE WILLCOX. Mary Smith prize, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1903.  Member of the Plastic Club and a fellow of the Academy, Philadelphia.  Born in Philadelphia, where she was a pupil of the Academy; also studied under Thomas Eakins, Thomas P. Anschutz, and Howard Pyle.

Miss Smith is essentially an illustrator and her work is seen in all the leading American magazines.  “The Child’s Calendar” is the work of this artist.

SONREL, MLLE. E. Honorable mention, Paris, 1893; third-class medal, 1895; bronze medal, Paris Exposition, 1900.  At the Salon des Artistes Francais, 1902, she exhibited “Sybille” and “Monica”; in 1903, “The Dance of Terpsichore” and “Princesse Lointaine.”

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SPANO, MARIA. Silver medal, Naples, 1859, for a picture of a “Contadina of Sorrento.”  Born in Naples, 1843.  Pupil of her father, Raffaele Spano, under whose direction she made a thorough study of figure painting, the results of which are evident in her excellent portraits and historical subjects.  She has also been greatly interested in landscape painting, in which she has been successful.  “A Confidence” was bought by the Gallery at Capodimonte, and two of her pictures were acquired by the Provincial Council of Naples—­a “Contadina,” life size, and a “Country Farmyard.”  One of her best pictures is “Bice at the Castle of Rosate.”