Allegorical Subject (Angel above Two Sibyls) 1560 - 1565

Curator: Immediately, I’m drawn into the delicate, almost dreamlike quality of this drawing. The figures seem to float on the paper. Editor: Indeed, there's an ethereal quality to it. This piece is "Allegorical Subject (Angel above Two Sibyls)" by Luca Cambiaso, created between 1560 and 1565. Executed in pen and ink on paper, it resides here at The Art Institute of Chicago. Curator: Oh, Cambiaso! I see it in those figures. The lines are so sure, even playful, despite the weighty subject matter suggested by the title. It’s history painting, right? And why are the Sibyls working on the same sheet? They seem to be drawing each other, in a kind of infinite reflective gesture… Editor: That interplay is precisely the allegory at play, as Renaissance artists returned to classical themes of prophecy. But these figures, these Sibyls, they aren't just aesthetic symbols; they’re witnesses. And consider the Angel. Suspended, detached, observant. There is perhaps even some queer mirroring in the sibyls who each embody both male and female attributes in their forms. Curator: Ah, interesting idea. It makes me consider it not so much prophecy as potential. What could be? How history can be rewritten or reshaped, or even reflected back to look different from separate points of view. I wonder if Cambiaso, himself, considered these themes of revision? Editor: That’s certainly one thread worth pulling, Cambiaso was indeed working in an age of artistic and intellectual ferment, a world grappling with seismic shifts in understanding. So it would seem fair to explore those connections here, and especially the implications of how perspective shifts our understanding. Curator: So true, these historical paintings, even sketches like these, show not a definitive depiction of a past, but a version of one, refracted through the values of then...and now, through our own eyes as viewers. Editor: And our own contexts. Perhaps these sibyls invite us to reimagine what’s possible, while being constantly observed in history by our present actions. I think it will be hard for me to now ever again look at such paintings of history the same way! Curator: Mine neither! It is the power of art to question.