Artwork of the Month: ‘Augustus and the Sybil’

The next Gallery talk will be on Wednesday 10 June at 11.30 am. The subject will be the sixteenth-century Venetian painting Augustus and the Sibyl.
This presentation examines an enigmatic sixteenth-century Venetian oil painting, currently held in storage, by an unidentified artist. Though the work features a characteristic Venetian landscape, the foreground figures depict a surprising encounter between the first-century Roman Emperor Augustus and a Sibyl, an ancient prophetess. Moving beyond questions of attribution, this talk investigates why this specific iconography was transposed into a Renaissance setting. Jessica Richardson, art historian and Friends’ committee member, will explore the painting’s technical execution and the broader popularity of this prophetic theme in sixteenth-century Italy to uncover the work’s potential layers of meaning.

Our Artwork of the Month talks are free and booking is not required, but members are reminded to show their membership card for free admittance to the Gallery.