Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Sibyls : Virtue, Morality, and Gender

Matthew Whyte
University College Cork
Faculty of Arts and Celtics Studies' Department of History of Art
2018
MRes

Subject: Fresco, Painting
Country: Italy
Period: 16th Century

This thesis interrogates the depiction of the Sibyls as part of the schema for the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo Buonarroti, considering the role of these figures within the context of the ceiling itself as well as in the context of Renaissance Rome’s interest in the classical world. Given the tendency in the literature to treat the Sibyls as part of broader studies on the ceiling or on Michelangelo’s oeuvre more generally, this project isolates these figures, advancing the claim that the artist’s singularly masculine portrayal of these women can be understood as supporting both the role they play in the ceiling’s narrative, and the vision that Pope Julius II had for his pontificate. This project first discusses the depiction of the sibyls in renaissance art, arguing that the values of virtue and morality were prioritised in images of these women and setting up a discussion of Michelangelo’s figures by highlighting the artist’s need to emulate these values in the context of the Sistine commission. Michelangelo’s treatment of the Sibyls is then set within the context of sibylline iconography during the Renaissance, arguing that the artist’s clear deviation from the established visual language was employed as a deliberate attempt to amplify the values of virtue and morality these figures were traditionally used to depict. Finally, this thesis reintegrates the Sibyls into the wider scheme of the ceiling, arguing that the artist’s conspicuous effort to prioritise the notion of virtue through the figures’ masculinity provides a moral corrective to Eve and the Fall, interacting with the chapel’s dedication to the Virgin while appealing to Pope Julius II’s vision of his own church as rooted in the wisdom of the classical past.

Irish Georgian Society

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Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Sibyls : Virtue, Morality, and Gender