Sybil (Melancholia)

Sybil (Melancholia), oil on panel by Angelo Caroselli (Rome 1585-1652). The unique headdress of this female figure, which is sometimes found as an attribute of the prophets, and the book held open with the judgments of the oracles and with a regretful look that leads to melancholy, led to its interpretation as the Sybil or Melancholy.

The search for the realistic and analytical data, particularly through the beam of light coming from the right, recalls certain trends in Dutch painting of the XVII Century which, while attentive to Caravaggio’s naturalism, explores the physicality of the real through the luminosity of a mainly analytical nature. The painting was recently attributed by Vittorio Sgarbi to Angelo Caroselli, a Roman eclectic and experimental painter.