The Cumaean Sibyl (after Michelangelo)

Michelangelo Buonarroti|Jean Robert Ango

1767 · Red chalk · Drawings and Prints

Little is known about Ango, who was a French draftsman active in Rome in the 1760s. He befriended many young art students at the French Academy in Rome, although not himself a pensionnaire. He most likely earned a living by making red-chalk copies of works by his friends and of paintings in local collections and churches. On this sheet, he copied not a whole composition, but two separate motifs from the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The image on the upper part of the sheet shows the pendentive featuring the Cumaean sibyl, one of the five female prophets depicted on the ceiling. The sketch below is of one of the triangular spandrels, which contain family groups of the ancestors of Christ.

Artist

Michelangelo Buonarroti|Jean Robert Ango

Date

1767

Medium

Red chalk

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2013