The Phrygian Sibyl

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Raphael. The drawing is in red chalk, and shows a female figure standing, her body stretched diagonally across the page. She is wearing a robe and is barefoot. Her left arm is bare and is held out across her chest; the arm is echoed in a study above the figure's head. Some black marks are visible beneath the red. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "8. RAPHAEL (b. 1483; d. 1520) THE PHRYGIAN SIBYL Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Presented to the University by a Body of Subscribers, 1846. From the Richardson, Reynolds, and Lawrence Collections. Red chalk over faint indication of black chalk. 36.3 x 19 cm. (14 1/4 x 7 1/2 in.). The Sibyls of S. Maria della Pace may be classed with the Jurisprudence and the damaged Parnassus of the Stanze amongst the master’s most individual creations, even more essentially his own than the Muses of the Camera della Segnatura, where, in the cast of the draperies and the poses of the putti, we can perceive a vague influence of Leonardo and Michelangelo. This drawing, from which Raphael has entirely departed in the final design, treats the Sibyl as a decorative ‘pendant’ figure to her companion. In the fresco she looks out over her shoulder, and remains, even to-day, despite restorations and the total re-painting of the background, one of the most vivid and beautiful figures in the painting of the Renaissance. To men of Raphael’s range and gift this exquisite drawing counted but as a step in the creation of yet finer things. C. R. [Robinson, Critical Account, p. 234, No. 96.]"