The Sybil Hellespontica
attributed to Benedetto Gennari the Younger (1633 - 1715)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1650 - 1715
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
978 x 838 mm (38 1/2 x 33 in)
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 851988
Caption
In antiquity, sibyls were women endowed with the gift of prophecy, and were priestesses of Apollo. During the Middle Ages, the western church had accepted twelve of them as prophets of the coming of Christ, of which the Sibyl Hellespontica was one. Her name indicated her place of origin.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Sybil Hellespontica, attributed to Benedetto Gennari the younger (Cento 1633 – Bologna 1715). A half-length of a woman, one of the twelve prophets or sibyls who foretold the coming of Christ, turned to the right, gazing down to the left, wearing a green and red low-cut dress, and holding an open scoll in her hands on which is inscribed on top of scroll: ILLE DEI LEGEM COMPLE: / BIT. NON VIOLABIT and on bottom right of scroll: SIBILLA / HELLESPONTICA. The composition is not known in any other version nor is it recorded in the Guercino's account book but the high quality of execution, however, in particular of the head and the left sleeve, would suggest that it is close to the studio of the master himself.
Provenance
In 1837 list by Frederick Hervey, 1st Marquess of Bristol as Guercino; recorded as hanging over the Canova fireplace in the Library at Ickworth in the handwritten floor plan of around 1910, next to the great Velasquez of Don Balthasar Carlos; acquired by the National Trust from Sothebys, The East Wing, Ickworth, Suffolk, sale, 11-12 June 1996
Credit line
Ickworth, The Bristol Collection (acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1956)
Makers and roles
attributed to Benedetto Gennari the Younger (1633 - 1715), artist previously catalogued as by Guercino (Cento 1591 – Bologna 1666) , artist previously catalogued as studio of Guercino (Cento 1591 – Bologna 1666) , artist
References
Ickworth, Suffolk 1998 [The National Trust: Nino Strachey] 1998, p. 13