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Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl

Maker

(artist)
1503-1540

(woodcutter)
ca. 1510-ca. 1550 (Life dates)

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1527 - 1530

Medium

chiaroscuro woodcut printed with two blocks, grey and light blue, on laid paper

Dimensions

Height: 33.5 cm
Width: 26.5 cm

Accession Number

G.1978.PG.32

Mode of Acquisition

Count Antoine Seilern, bequest, 1978

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

This woodcut illustrates an episode from Roman antiquity, as narrated in a medieval text. A prophetic Sibyl, at the centre, points to the sky and reveals to the Roman Emperor Augustus the future arrival of Christ. The print is a collaboration between Parmigianino and the printmaker Antonio da Trento. The technique employed involved printing from two separate woodblocks inked with different colours: a light blue for the overall tone, and a grey one for the lines which define the famously graceful figures of Parmigianino’s design.

Notes

P. Mariette 1667 (in ink on recto). On verso, in ink - Richard Ford 1826 / ecole H[elp?] Vienna and AM Hind / 1912 A note in pencil points out that this state was before the injury to the block behind the Virgin. In this impression, the tone is printed over the black line block (Michael Bury, 2008). Bartsch XII.90.7

Provenance

Pierre-Jean Mariette, Paris (1694-1774); 1667; Richard Ford (1796-1858), 1826; Arthur Magyar Hind (1880-1957), 1912; Colnaghi, London; purchased there by Count Antoine Seilern, London (1901-1978), 14 July 1959 (£20); Princes Gate Bequest 1978

Exhibition History

Drawings Gallery Display - The Art of Experiment: Parmigianino at The Courtauld, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 03/05/2022-06/05/2022

The Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance Italy, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), 03/06/2018-16/09/2018; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 14/10/2018-16/01/2019

Parmigianino - Paintings, Drawings, Prints, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14/05/1987-12/07/1987

Literature

The Art of Experiment: Parmigianino at The Courtauld, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 2022
cat. no. 27
ill. on p. 139

Takahatake, Naoko (ed.), The Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance Italy, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2018, Munich, London, New York
cat. no. 31
pp. 112, 115
ill. on p. 113

Gnann, Achim, Parmigianino: Die Zeichnungen, Petersberg 2007
pp. 189-90 ...More

Parmigianino - Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Courtauld, London, 1987
cat. no. 32 ...Less

Inscriptions

Inscription: recto, lower edge, brown ink : P.mariette 1667 //

Inscription: verso, centre right, brown ink : Richard Ford 1826 / ecole H[elp?] Vienna //

Inscription: verso, lower left, brown ink : AM Hind [in box] / 1912 //

Inscription: verso, lower right, reddish brown pencil : 2527 //

Inscription: verso, lower right, graphite : Bartsch vol. 12 no. 7 - 90 very fine / [illegible] late before the block was / injured behind the head of the Virgin //

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