Work Record
Class [controlled]:
• prints and drawings • European
art
*Work
Type [link]: •
drawing • study
*Title: Studies
for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan
Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso)
*Creator
Display: Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian,
1475-1564)
*Role
[link]: draftsman [link]: Buonarroti,
Michelangelo
*Creation
Date: 1508-1512 [controlled]: •
Earliest: 1508 • Latest: 1512
*Subject
[links]: • religion and mythology •
human figure • Lybian Sybil (Christian
iconography) • Sistine Chapel frescoes
(Vatican, Italy)
Style [link]:
Renaissance
Culture [link]: Italian
*Current
Location [link]: Metropolitan
Museum of Art (New York, New York USA) •
ID: 1924 (24.197.2)
*Measurements:
28.9 x 21.3 cm (height) (11 3/8 x 8 3/8 inches)
[controlled] • Value: 28.9
Unit: cm Type: height
| • Value: 21.3
Unit: cm Type: width
*Materials
and Techniques: red chalk on ivory-colored
laid paper
Material [links]:
• red chalk • laid paper Technique
[links]: • drawing
Description: Michelangelo
made these studies using a nude male model for the
figure of the female Libyan sibyl, intended for
the ceiling frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, the
Vatican. In the iconography, the ancient Greek Sibyls
were believed responsible for a collection of oracular
prophecies in which Christian doctrine was supposedly
confirmed. The sibyls came thus to be regarded by
some Christians as prophetic authorities comparable
to the Old Testament prophets. These prophecies
were actually the work of various Jewish and Christian
writers from ca. 150 BCE - ca. 180 CE.
Description Sources
[link]: Hibbard,
Howard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New
York: Harrison House, 1986.
• Berenson, Bernard. The Drawings of the
Florentine Painters. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1938. Page:
251, plate 445
• Metropolitan Museum of Art online. www.metmuseum.org
Page: accessed
22 October 2006
Required and recommended elements are marked with an asterisk. |
