Page:Cyclopedia of painters and paintings (IA cyclopediaofpain04cham).pdf/199

 a niche. Painted in 1866; chalk drawing, Alexander Stevenson, Tynemouth.—Athenæum, Sept., 1873, 407; Oct., 1875, 444.

SIBYLS, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome; frescos on ceiling. Painted on five of the twelve pendentives, the other seven being filled with as many prophets, viz.: Zachariah, Joel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Jonah, Daniel, and Isaiah.

1. Erythræan Sibyl, full-length, seated, looking into an open book at right. Behind, two children, one lighting a lamp.

2. Persian Sibyl, full-length, seated, writing in an open book at left. In front of her, two children.

3. Libyan Sibyl, full-length, seated, holding an open volume on a pedestal at her right and looking left at two children seated in front of her.

4. Cumæan Sibyl, full-length, seated front, looking to her right into an open book, behind which are two children.

5. Delphian Sibyl, full-length, seated, looking nearly front. Behind, two children, one looking into an open book.

Engraved by Cherubino Alberti.—Vasari, ed. Mil., vii. 182; Pistolesi, Vaticano desc., viii. Pl. 98, 105, 112, 123, 129; Landon, Œuvre de Michel-Ange, Pl. vi., viii., x., xii., xiv.

Sibyls, Raphael, S. M. della Pace, Rome.

SIBYLS, Raphael, S. M. della Pace, Rome; fresco. At left, the Cumæan Sibyl, seated, holding up a scroll, half-opened by a flying angel, inscribed "The Resurrection of the Dead;" next the Persian Sibyl, writing on a tablet held by an angel, "He will have the Lot of Death"; on the key-stone, a little angel holding a torch, and another, seated near, points to a tablet in his hand inscribed, "The Heavens surround the Sphere of the Earth"; next, the Phrygian Sibyl, and below her, the Tiburtine Sibyl; between them, a little angel with a tablet inscribed, "I will open and arise," and above them another floating, with an open scroll inscribed, "Another Generation already." Painted by order of Agostino Chigi in 1514; entirely by Raphael. Shows wonderful execution. Vasari calls it Raphael's masterpiece. This fresco is beneath that of the Prophets, and is the picture which Michelangelo was called in to value, estimating each head to be worth a hundred ducats. Restored in 1556-1561 by Fontana and in the present century by Palmaroli. Engraved by a pupil of Marc Antonio; J. Volpato (1772); Ferd. Ruschweyh; M. F. Dien (1838). Original designs in Abertina Collection, Vienna, and at Oxford.—Vasari, ed. Mil., iv. 340; Passavant, ii. 138; Müntz, 491, 493; Springer, 256; Réveil, xiv. 967.

SICHEL, NATHANAEL, born in Mentz, Jan. 8, 1844. History and portrait painter,