Kaiser Augustus und die tiburtinische Sibylle

Wolfgang Katzheimer the Elder's Kaiser Augustus und die tiburtinische Sibylle (Emperor Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl), now in the Bavarian State Painting Collections, depicts the legend in which the Emperor Augustus, seeking divine confirmation of his deification, consults the Tiburtine Sibyl, who shows him a vision of the Virgin and Child in the heavens — prophesying the Incarnation and making Augustus unwittingly the first pagan to acknowledge Christ. The legend was enormously popular in the medieval church as a proof text for the unity of ancient and Christian history, presenting Roman imperial authority as unconsciously preparing the way for Christian redemption. Its depiction in a Bamberg altarpiece program reflects the continued vitality of typological and prophetic subject matter in German religious painting at the turn of the sixteenth century.

Katzheimer employs his characteristic Franconian narrative energy in staging the encounter between the emperor and the sibyl, with Augustus's imperial figure — in Roman armor and regalia — contrasting with the sibyl's prophetic ecstasy as she gestures upward toward the celestial vision. The heavenly apparition of the Virgin and Child above the scene provides a luminous contrast to the earthly court setting below.