The Sibyls at Carafa

"Filippino made the grandest work in Rome for the Neopolitan Cardinal, Oliviero Carafa, at the warm request of Lorenzo de' Medici, his friend."  -Visari 1568

Cardinal Carafa selected a chapel that already existed in Santa Maria sopra Minerva and enlarged it.  The chapel had significant importance in the celebration of the feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas.  When he commissioned Filippino Lippi (1488), the artist was already under commission to Filippo Strozzi in Florence (we will visit that chapel next week).  Strozzi did not oppose putting his project on hold as Carafa held significant prestige and power among the Dominican churches as it's Cardinal Protector.  At this time, we see Masolino, Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Rosselli, and others all working on paintings in chapels.

The Carafa Chapel is dedicated to the Virgin and Saint Thomas.  The first figures painted were on the main vault and are four sibyls, seers of the ancient world.  The vault was painted sotto in su (from below) perspective.  Sibyls play a prominent role in the writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans, which Cardinal Carafa and his Humanist friends knew well.  The sibyls' prediction of Christ's birth link them to the Annunciation (the Virgin) and to man's knowledge of God (a theme of Saint Thomas Aquinas).  The sibyls were symbols of wisdom and knowledge.  They are seen in the Carafa Chapel holding cartouches with Saint Thomas Aquinas statements.

In the center of the vault is the coat of arms for the Carafa family.

Lippi's four sibyls include the Cumacan Sibyl, the Tiburtine Sibyl, the Delphic Sibyl, and the Hellespontine Sibyl (unattributed artist).  Filippino Lippi's new sibyl style has been attributed to the Pollaiuolo brother's innovations of their reclining ten Arts and Sciences bronze figures on the sides of the tomb of Sixtus IV. Filippino Lippi used ancient Roman models (figures from classical sources) and rotates them from left to right with the torso at various angles to the hips.  The arms are in a variety of poses, the legs are bent, and they are very gestural.  There is a strong sense of unity throughout.

Panel from Tomb of Sixtus IV

Close-up of the Four Sibyls at Carafa:

The Delphic Sibyl (Apollo's oracle) who prophesied the Trojan War.

The Cumean Sibyl who points up towards the divine origin of Christ's incarnation.

The Tiburtine Sibyl refers to Rome.

The Hellespontine Sibyl's prophecy foretells Christ's birth of a virgin.