5047B

Sibylla Aegyptia

Artist: Follower of Bernardo Bitti (1548-1610) and Sebastián Acostopa Inca
Title: Sibylla Aegyptia
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 (i2021) 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, only the engravings by Firens and Granthomme and de Leu display the sybil with a hat, scepter, and a book (but not with an olive branch), as in 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, the engravings have all the same text. We thus consider the Firens engraving as the source for the iconography and select the de Leu engraving 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: 5047B