The Cumaean Sibyl (oil on canvas)

Studio of Guercino (Cento 1591-Bologna 1666) The twelve pagan sibyls, or Apollo's classical priestesses at Delphi, endowed with the gift of prophecy, were accepted by the Christian church as pagan counterparts of the Old Testament prophets, foretelling the coming of Christ. This Sybil holds one of the 'Sibylline Books', in which her prophecies were recorded. The Cumaean Sibyl predicted that Christ would be born of a virgin in a stable at Bethlehem. The inscription on the stone slab of the original painting refers to the cross on which Christ was crucified. This painting, originally known as 'The Persian Sybil', is in fact a very fine copy and a reduced version from Guercino's much larger painting 'The Cumaean Sybil with a Putto' of 1651 ex-Sir Denis Mahon collection, hanging in the National Gallery, London which was commissioned in 1651 by Gioseffo Locatelli of Cesena as a companion to a King David(private collection). Before the Sibyl could be sent to Locatelli though, it was seen in Guercino's studio by Prince Mattias de' Medici, who convinced the artist to sell it to him. Guercino then painted a replacement for Locatelli: a Samian Sibyl with a Putto, also ex-Mahon, and now in the National Gallery. The present painting was acquired by Charles Winn as a 'Persian Sibyl', from a dealer or at auction in London in 1834 and stored with the decorator, Thomas Ward of 27, Frith Street, Soho, before being sent on to Nostell.