Cumaean Sibyl (Domenichino)

The Sibilla Cumana (Cumaean Sibyl) is an oil painting on canvas by the Italian Baroque painter Domenicho Zampieri (Domenichino) housed in the Capitoline Museum in Rome, Italy.

The theme of the Cumaean Sibyl was used by the Bolognese Domenichino likely four times and was a common trope favored by learned patrons in Rome.

Patrons could obtain a topic both derived from classical literature and yet voicing an apparent prophesy of the birth of Christ.

These painters depicted the Sibyl as an older woman; tradition holds that she had a God give her a long life, but was not given extended youth.

The painting is mentioned in the inventory from 1641, and the list of 1697, assigns the work to Domenichino.

Cumaean Sibyl at Galleria Borghese, also by Domenichino