The Libyan Sibyl is a figure from Michelangelo’s ceiling fresco in the Sistine Chapel (created from 1508 to 1512 BCE) in the Vatican in Rome Italy. Sibyl is derived from the ancient Greek word “sibylla” which means prophetess. There are twelve prophets or seers painted on the ceiling and they represent seven Jewish characters who prophesied or heralded the coming of the Messiah in the Tanakh or “Old Testament.” The five sibyls are characters from classic mythology who represent the arrival of change. The Libyan Sibyl was one of the last of these figures to be painted and the overall area of her section measures roughly fifteen by twelve and a half feet. Her composition was broken into twenty giornate or sections of plaster and was probably executed in twenty days work with Michelangelo’s full sized cartoons being transferred to the wet plaster by pricking pinholes along the lines of the drawing and then pouncing a cloth bag filled with charcoal along these lines. Transferring a drawing to plaster this way is known as spolvero. Michelangelo would then paint each section before that area of plaster dried. Errors or sections the artist disliked would be chiseled away and redone. Because this was one of the later figures of the ceiling it is especially magnificent for the artist would of have had several years of practice in his technique of fresco painting. It is of importance to note that Michelangelo resisted this commission because he was primarily a sculptor and he himself referred to painting as “not my art.”

This is one of, if not my favorite figures from the Sistine Ceiling. The grace, complexity, and curvature of the figure is a perfect example of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s mastery of the human figure. He is the world’s greatest artist for his skill in drawing, painting, and sculpture has no equal. No artist before or after has come close to mastering so many artistic disciplines not to mention his architectural accomplishments or his half-ass poetry. No human being has ever been as creatively multi-faceted or prolific as this beloved yet tortured man who came to be known as divine within his own lifetime.

My version of his Sibyl is an illustrated example of how I see spacial relationships in this world. When I look upon an arrangement of shapes I see an inter-connecting array of lines which forms the framework of an invisible composition that plays within my mind. It is how I artistically or instinctively know where one form or shape should be in relation to another or within a grouping of others. When I draw or paint or sculpt these guidelines or spatial yearnings guide my eye and hand to produce whatever line or shape I find pleasing. This impulse or obsession to view, judge, measure and manipulate compositional arrangements has dominated my existence for as long as I can remember. This impulse is so overpowering it even dictates which can of spinach or jar of peanut butter I choose from the grocery shelf based on each jar’s spatial relationship to each other and their relationships to the other cans or jars of food or shapes of the shelves surrounding them. In my parents’ car, as a child, I would look at the shapes of trees and the placement of bushes or houses on the lots we drove past or the arrangement of clouds within the sky. My father would tease me and say “If I dropped you off right here you would have no idea how to get home” even if we were only a mile from our house. He was right. My Libyan Sibyl illuminates the spatial complexity of how I artistically visualize the arrangement and communication of Michelangelo’s lines and shapes to one another within this composition. Libyca was the daughter of Lamia and Zeus. She foretold the “coming of the day when that which is hidden shall be revealed.” In this work I have revealed the operation of my mind.

Acrylic and Oil on Canvas 36" x 48"