Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520-1582)
after Michelangelo (Italian, 1475-1564)
The Delphic Sibyl
INV-8001
Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520-1582)
after Michelangelo (Italian, 1475-1564)early 1570s
engravingprint
Date
early 1570s
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 56.6 × 43.2 cm (22 5/16 × 17 1/16 in.); Sheet: 57 × 43.9 cm (22 1/2 × 17 5/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
The Wallace L. DeWolf and Joseph Brooks Fair Collections
Giorgio Ghisi’s detailed reproductions helped make Michelangelo’s frescoes, like Raphael’s, some of the best-known High Renaissance monuments, despite their restricted location. As the Sistine Chapel ceiling was too large to include on one sheet, Ghisi produced a series of oversize engravings of seven prophets and five sibyls. Ghisi’s rendition of the Delphic sibyl in an architectural framework is significantly smaller than the actual painting. The spurious 1540 date at lower right may have been added by the print’s publisher, Nicolas van Aelst, to suggest Ghisi’s images of the chapel appeared earlier than other available reproductions.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
The Eritrean Sibyl
Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520-1582) after Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475-1564)
The Persian Sibyl
Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520-1582) after Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475-1564)
The Prophet Jeremiah
Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520-1582) after Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475-1564)
