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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1941.130
People
Unidentified Artist
Title
The Tiburtine Sybil Showing the Vision of the Madonna and Child to the Emperor Augustus
Classification
Textile Arts
Work Type
tapestry
Date
1505-1515
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Belgium, Brussels
Culture
Flemish
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230274

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Wool
Technique
Woven, tapestry weave
Dimensions
363.2 x 231.1 cm (143 x 91 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Manuel I of Portugal (died 1521), gift; to Baraho Na Fragosa family, Evora Palace, early 16th century. Fernand Schutz, 19th century. [Demotte, Paris]. [French & Company, New York], sold; to Felix M. Warburg, by descent; to Mrs. Felix M. Warburg, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1941

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mrs. Felix M. Warburg in commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of Mr. Felix M. Warburg's birth
Accession Year
1941
Object Number
1941.130
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
This tapestry belongs to the Redemption of Man Series and depicts Augustus and the Tiburtine Sybil. The rest of the tapestry panel, which is found in 1956.241, features episodes from the childhood of Christ. This fragment preserves about one third of the original composition; the remaining portion of the original composition is also in the Fogg collection: see 1956.241. A corresponding tapestry (made from the same cartoons) from a different set survives as an integral whole in the Sala Capitular of Palencia Cathedral, and helps to reconstruct the relative placement of the Fogg's two fragments. This fragment would have appeared to the left of 1956.241, and there is a missing strip of weaving (about one foot wide) between them. The jeweled borders now visible on the two fragments mask their fragmentary state, and were probably added in the early twentieth century by the dealer Fernard Schutz when the tapestries were in his possession. The scene is based on Voragine's Golden Legend, which recounts that Emperor Augustus summoned the Tiburtine Sybil to ask whether someone greater than he was to be born in the world. In the sky, Augustus saw a light-filled vision of a Virgin holding a child in her lap, and the sybil replied, "this child is greater than you, and it is he that you must worship." Above the sybil scene appears the circumcision of Christ.

Publication History

  • Tapestries of the Lowlands (New York, 1924), pl. 54
  • Anna Gray Bennett, Five Centuries of Tapestry from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (San Francisco, CA, 1992), p. 67, fig. 41
  • Rafael Moreira, Vi o Reino Renovar: Arte no tempo de D. Manuel I, exh. cat., Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga and Imprensa Nacional (Lisbon, 2021), p. 43, repr. as fig. 4

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu