The Sibyl Agrippina is a circa 1630s oil painting of a Black woman in the guise of the Sibyl Agrippina (also known as Sibyl AEgyptia). The painting is one of a series of Sybils by Jan van den Hoecke, only recently being re-attributed after being known as an early portrait of an African woman by Abraham Janssens. It is held in the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf.[1]
| The Sibyl Agrippina | |
|---|---|
| Sibyl Agrippina | |
 | |
| Artist | Jan van den Hoecke  |
| Year | c. 1630s |
| Dimensions | 1,065 mm (41.9 in) × 800 mm (31 in) |
The motif of a Black woman as "Egyptian" Sybil follows the style of various engravings of sybils in Western religious art. The Sybil is shown here with a whip and a crown of thorns, both attributes of Christ's Flagellation. It was given the Jan van den Hoeke attribution in the 2008 exhibition Black is beautiful: Rubens tot Dumas by prof. Elizabeth McGrath. The inscription reads Siccabitur ut folium (he will be shrivelled like a leaf).[2]
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Sybil Agrippina, by Jan Luyken -
Sybil Agrippina, by Crispijn van de Passe -
References
edit- ^ Painting in blogpost by Esther Schreuder, curator of Black is Beautiful
- ^ Latin verses regarding the "Sybilla Agrippa" in "As David and the sibyls say", sketch of the sibyls and the sibylline oracles by Mariana Monteiro, Alfred Canon White, 1905
- Black is beautiful: Rubens tot Dumas, catalog nr. 22, exhibition & catalog in Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam, 2008
- "Jacob Jordaens and Moses's Ethiopian Wife", by Elizabeth McGrath, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 70, 2007, pp 247-85
External links
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