The Pavement Masters of Siena (1369-1562)Cust, Robert H. Hobart (Robert Henry Hobart)
History
The Pavement Masters of Siena (1369-1562)
Cust, Robert H. Hobart (Robert Henry Hobart)
Art -- Italy -- Siena; Duomo di Siena; Pavements, Mosaic
This Sibyl, as we have already seen, is one of those named in the
earliest lists by Pausanias. She is said to have been a native of
Marpessus or Erythrae in the Troad, and he, as well as some other
writers, gives her the name of Herophile; one authority however speaks
of a _Trojan_ Sibyl, whom he calls Herophila, and names the Erythraean
one, Symmachia. She lived, as we have said before when writing of the
Delphic Sibyl, chiefly at Samos, but visited Clarus, Delos and Delphi.
This would, no doubt, account for the difficulty in distinguishing the
various place-names attached to these different women. As we have also
seen above, the Sibylline books are said to have been once preserved
at Erythrae, and Lactantius attributes to her the famous acrostic
which announces the Coming of the Anointed One, Son of God Himself, as
Saviour of the World. Here she is depicted as a tall patrician lady,
with a rather forbidding countenance, and a very curious head-dress,
which partially envelops her face. Her right hand clasps a closed
volume, while the left rests on an open book, supported by a carved
lectern. On the pages of this book are written the following words:
DE EXCELSO ET NASCETVR
CAELORVM HA IN DIEBVS NO
BITACVLO PRO VISSIMIS DE VIR
SPEXIT DOMI GINE HEBRAEA
NVS HVMILES IN CVNABVLIS
SVOS TERRAE
(From the High Habitation of Heaven God has looked down on His
humble (servants), and shall be born in these most recent days of a
Hebrew Virgin in the cradle of the earth.)
Beside her on a stool is a tablet, telling us that this is the
Erythraean Sibyl, whom Apollodorus claimed as his fellow citizen.
This Sibyl was designed and executed by Antonio Federighi in 1482;
and we are told that he received 649 lire 17 soldi for it.[46] It
is interesting to note that this and the Samian are the only Sibyls
signed by their designers. Federighi’s evident taste for faithful
representation of the costumes of his period, apparent also in his
other works, would account for the rather bizarre head-dress above
referred to. The cost of restoration of this Sibyl was 2,043 lire 13 c.
_The Persian Sibyl._
Ferdinand Piper, quoting a scholiast on Plato,[47] identifies this
Sibyl with the one elsewhere variously called Chaldaean, Babylonian,
Egyptian and Hebrew. He tells us further, that tradition called her
also the daughter of Berosus, and daughter-in-law of Noah, which raises
confusion with the Cuman.[48] He adds, also, that sometimes the name
of Sabbe is given to her, and sometimes that of Sambetha. Nothing more
is known of this Sibyl; but it is worth noting that the prophecy here
attributed to her is the only one that does not deal with the Birth or
Atonement of Christ.
She is represented as a pleasant-looking woman of middle age, with her
head bound up in a simple veil. In her left hand she carries a book,
and with her right she draws attention to a tablet, resting on a carved
pedestal, with an inscription as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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