Sibille een draperie ophoudend boven de schouder 1520 - 1567

Lambertus Suavius made this print, “Sibille een draperie ophoudend boven de schouder”, sometime between 1514 and 1564, using engraving. The sibyls were female figures from classical antiquity, oracles who could foresee the future. They experienced a resurgence in popularity during the Renaissance. Suavius worked in the Netherlands, where interest in classical culture was intertwined with the humanist movement. The print is strongly influenced by Italian Renaissance art, but Suavius likely also would have seen the sibyls painted by Jan van Eyck in Ghent. What is interesting about this work is how it suggests that the artist had an antiquarian interest in the past. We can learn more about this print and the place it had in early modern society by investigating sources such as inventories of print collections, books of emblems, and architectural treatises.