CHERUBINO ALBERTI

Borgo San Sepolcro 1553-1615 Rome

The Persian Sibyl

Engraving after Michelangelo Buonarroti (Caprese 1475 - 1564 Rome) : 425 x 280 mm.; 16 3/4 x 11 in.

Reference: Bartsch 74

Notes:

1. A strong impression of this engraving after Michelangelo’s treatnent of this subject in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo executed his frescos for the Sistine Chapel betweeen 1508 and 1512. Surrounding the enormous Last Judgement, he painted a series of prophets and sibyls including the Persian Sibyl and also a series of "history" panels from Genesis. Alberti then later executed a number of engravings after various subjects in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. In addition to the Persian Sibyl, these included One of the Saved from the Last Judgement (Bartsch XVII.75.68). In this and other engravings, Alberti, making use of the lessons of earlier masters such as Cornelis Cort (1533 - 1578), developed a decoratively effective engraving style (see: Michael Bury The Print in Italy 1550 - 1620, The British Museum press, 2001: p. 125).

2. Active in San Sepolcro and Rome, Alberti was a painter, engraver and cross-bow constructor. His earliest engravings date from 1571 and he continued as a printmaker until 1590. Bury (ref. above p. 221) notes that Alberti executed..." Mythological, devotional and ornemental subjects, portraits and antiquities". Over the decades, Alberti executed prints after Raphael, Michelangelo, Polidoro da Caravaggio, Andrea del Sarto, Rosso Fiorentino, Taddeo and Federico Zuccaro. Similar in ways to the situation of Luca Bertelli (active in Padua and Venice between 1564 and 1589), Alberti kept control over most of his own plates and made the decisions concerning their printing. (see our no.5, note 3).