A Sibyl Holding a Scroll (Study for the Cimmerian Sibyl)
Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Like other Sibyls of the ancient world, the Cimmerian Sibyl - whose real name was Carmentis - was venerated as the great prophetic priestess presiding over the Apollonian Oracle at Cimmerium in Italy, near Lake Avernus. Guercino's vibrant drawing, executed with a dense network lines in pen and ink, is associated with a painting of the Cimmerian Sibyl, which is extant in at least two versions (Reggio Emilia, Credito Emiliano [now Credem] and Galerie Canesso, Paris in 2002; see "A Rediscovered Sibyl by Guercino," by Veronique Damian). The drawing is considered an original preparatory study for the Reggio Emilia version of the Cimmerian Sibyl, which has been dated to 1638, the year of the commission, for which payment was received on January 2, 1639, and which is recorded in the "Libro dei Conti" of Guercino's studio (located Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio, MS.B.331., also published in full in Calvi, Notizie della vita, e delle opere del Cavaliere Giovan Francesco Barbieri detto il Guercino da Cento, Bologna, 1808, and in Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice, 1841, II, pp. 307- 44).
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.