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    Modern Sibyls and sibylline media

    Calè, Luisa (2020) Modern Sibyls and sibylline media. Studies in Romanticism 59 (1), pp. 45-69. ISSN 0039-3762.

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    Abstract

    The dynamic image of the Sibyl’s flying leaves is at odds with the still life of painting, but her recalcitrant ministry offers a powerful allegory for the survival of writing as a ‘riddle at the painting’s centre’ (Garrett Stewart), a medium whose mode of operation has been subtracted by its transposition in paint. This essay traces visual lines of transmission starting with Old Master paintings, and then turning to portraits, adaptations, and impersonations of modern sibyls in the Romantic period, focusing on Benjamin West, Angelica Kauffmann, Emma Hamilton’s attitudes and Friedrich Rehberg’s outlines, and Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: Illustrations: 1. James Watson after Angelica Kauffman, Lady Bingham, 1775, courtesy Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University 2. Angelica Kauffman, Bildnis einer Dame als Sibylle, 1782, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Photo: Elke Estel/ Hans-Peter Klut 3. Angelica Kauffman, Sibilla che legge, before 1788, Turin, Galleria Sabauda, no. 526. 4. Friedrich Rehberg, Sibyl, Drawings Faithfully copied from Nature at Naples, 1794. 5. Dudley Pratt after Elizabeth Vigée Lebrun, Emma Hamilton as a Sibyl, 1791-2, © National Portrait Gallery, London.
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Sibyls, Media, Benjamin West, Angelica Kauffmann, Emma Hamilton, Friedrich Rehberg, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
    Research Centres and Institutes: Nineteenth-Century Studies, Centre for
    Depositing User: Luisa Cale
    Date Deposited: 09 Mar 2020 12:50
    Last Modified: 09 Aug 2023 12:47
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/31192

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