5045B

Sibylla Samia

Artist: Follower of Bernardo Bitti (1548-1610) and Sebastián Acostopa Inca
Title: Sibylla Samia
Date: 1614 (carving by the follower of Bernardo Bitti) and 1618 (gilt and painting by Sebastián Acostopa)
Medium: Polychrome and gilt wood
Location: Retablo de Nuestra Señora de Copacabana (now Retablo de Santa Teresa de Lisieux), Santuario de Nuestra Señora, Copacabana, Bolivia.
Photo Source: Vila da Vila (2021)
Correspondence Credit: Vila da Vila (2021) and Almerindo Ojeda
Note: Engravings by Crispijn de Passe I, Jacques Granthomme, Thomas de Leu, Pierre Firens, and Pietro Paolo Tossi could have served as sources for this carving. Yet, all but the de Leu engraving show one long braid (rather than two) and a closed spiral in the back of the headpiece (as does the carved image). And only the engraving by Firens inscribes the sybil in an oval rather than a circular field (as does the carved image). As to the text surrounding the carved image, only the engravings by de Leu, van de Passe, and Tossi display the text QVAE ET HEROPHILE … DICITUR (as does the carving) as opposed to QVAE PHYTO ET HEROPHILE … DICTA. We thus consider the Firens engraving as the source for the iconography and select the de Leu engraving (over the van de Passe and Tossi engravings) as the source for the text of this artwork, as only the de Leu engravings match the texts of all the carved sybils. Also, both the Firens and the de Leu engravings were issued by Jean Leclerc IV under the same title page.
Item: 5045B

Correspondences: Archive: 5045A/5045B; Archive: 5045A/5045B; 5045A/5045B