A Sybil with Bowl

This stunning portrait depicts a lady in a headscarf and blue cloak holding a bowl and a rod as she gazes to her left. She is a beautiful and youthful lady, with full rosy cheeks and immaculately braided red hair. Her apparent youth creates an air of vulnerability around her. The flesh tones are beautiful, and the rendering of the fabric folds of the cloak and headscarf is incredibly lifelike. The lady’s patterned headscarf, bowl and pearl earring denote that she is a sybil.

In Ancient Greece, sybils were seen as prophetesses who could relay visions of the future. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the growth of Christianity led to a reinterpretation of sybils, who were now portrayed as having predicted the coming of Christ. As a result, the depiction of sybils became an immensely popular theme within art. For example, sibyls feature within Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling fresco; and Filippino Lippi and Botticelli collaborated on a piece depicting sibyls in niches.