Cumaean Sibyl

This Cumaean Sibyl from 1617, held in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, is one of Domenichino's most famous paintings and helped establish the sibyl as one of his signature subjects. The Galleria Borghese, assembled by Cardinal Scipione Borghese — the most avid art collector of early seventeenth-century Rome — houses an extraordinary collection of Renaissance and Baroque masterworks. Domenichino's sibyl, with her characteristic expression of inspired rapture and classically beautiful features, became one of the most admired and copied paintings in Rome throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The half-length composition focuses on the sibyl's inspired face and dramatic gesture, her eyes raised heavenward in prophetic ecstasy. Domenichino's refined modeling and luminous flesh painting create a figure of ideal beauty, while the animated expression and billowing drapery inject classical composure with Baroque vitality.