A Sibyl

Pictures of Sibyls enjoyed enormous favour in Italian baroque art, since they provided artists with a legitimate excuse to depict beautiful young women in exotic dress. The Bolognese artist Domenichino is known to have painted at least two other Sibyls: one with an attribute of music and another holding a Greek scroll (both in Rome, in the Pinacoteca Capitolina and the Borghese Gallery). The three closely-related works depict richly-attired women with elaborate headdresses. The Wallace Collection picture exhibits greater freedom of touch and is generally considered to be earlier, and to date from around 1620. The picture belonged to the Regent of France, Philippe duc d’Orléans (1674 – 1723), and later to his descendant Philippe-Égalité, duc d’Orléans (1747 – 93). It was bought by the 4th Marquess of Hertford, ‘as much for the frame as for the picture’, at the sale of the 2nd Duke of Buckingham in 1848.

early 1620s

Oil on canvas

77.4 x 68.2cm

P131

Images and text © Wallace Collection, 2017