Art Institute of Chicago

The Delphic Sibyl

Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520-1582)

Date

early 1570s

Medium

Engraving in black on ivory laid paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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.

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.