Sibyl Reading with a Child Holding a Torch (1518–27): Art, History and Details

Sibyl Reading with a Child Holding a Torch (1518–27) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Ugo da Carpi (Italian, c. 1479–c. 1532); Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

As the innovator of the chiaroscuro process in Italy, Ugo's greatest achievement was the use of three- and four-tone blocks to simulate the subtleties of Raphael's ink wash drawings. Using woodcut, he duplicated the powerful contours, simplified forms, and spontaneous appearance of the Italian master's graphics. Here, the print shows a sitting Sybil who is reading a book to a child holding a torch to illuminate the room. The design for Sibyl Reading has been traditionally ascribed to Raphael based on the several sibylline figures (one of whom is accompanied by a putto holding a torch) in the master's decorations for the Capella Chigi, Santa Maria della Pace, Rome (1511–14), though there is no direct correspondence.

Object facts

• Title: Sibyl Reading with a Child Holding a Torch
• Date: 1518–27
• Creator attribution: Ugo da Carpi (Italian, c. 1479–c. 1532); Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Print
• Technique: chiaroscuro woodcut
• Dimensions: Platemark: 26.8 x 21.8 cm (10 9/16 x 8 9/16 in.); Sheet: 27.5 x 22.6 cm (10 13/16 x 8 7/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Chiaroscuro
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1979.93

A detail from the museum

The large number of surviving prints of this subject suggests it was one of the most repeated Italian chiaroscuro woodcut designs.

Collection credit

Delia E. Holden Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1979." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 3 (1980): 58-99.
• Goldfarb, Hilliard T. “Chiaroscuro Woodcut Technique and Andrea Andreani.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 9 (November 1981): 307–330.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.