The Eritrean Sibyl
c. 1570
Medium
Engraving on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
57.2 × 43.6 cm (22 9/16 × 17 3/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
135442
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Giorgio Ghisi engraved six of the twelve prophets and sibyls from the pendentives of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling fresco almost 60 years after its completion. This prophetess, a priestess of Apollo in ancient Greece, was included as part of the Sistine cycle because she was said to have prophesied the coming of the Redemption through Christ. (The presence of Michelangelo’s nude staffage figures elicited a later, censored state of the print with fig leaves.)
About the Artist
Giorgio Ghisi · 1520–1582
Giorgio Ghisi (c. 1520–1582) was one of the most accomplished engravers of the Italian Renaissance, renowned for translating the monumental compositions of Raphael, Giulio Romano, and Michelangelo into the exacting medium of the burin. Born in Mantua, he trained in an environment shaped by the legacy of Giulio Romano's decoration of the Palazzo del Te, and the grandeur of that Mannerist tradition ...