Las sibilas de San Telmo

Abstract

The Sibyls of San Telmo are twelve paintings placed in the sacristy of the Church of San Telmo (Buenos Aires, Argentina) which represent the Cumaean, Hellespontine, Libyan, Cumane, Persian, Tiburtine, Phrygian, Delphic, Rhodian, Erytraean, Sabbe or Sambethe and Samian Sibyls. They are anonymous eighteenth century paintings, whose origin is unknown and debatable - they may be Spanish or Cuzcan. Each painting has three parts: 1. the Sibyl?s frontal effigy magnificently dressed; 2. a flower trimmed medallion or tondo, containing an episode of Christ?s life; 3. in the lower part, a pattern with the biblical and prophetical text in Spanish corresponding to the medallion. The aim of this lecture is: a) to place this series within the Sibylline tradition, that in Lactantius? Divinae Institutiones christianizes the Varronian canon of the first century B.C., adding in the sixteenth century two sibyls to the ten of Varro in order to match the twelve prophets of Old Testament, b) to set up the literary and pictorial models (engravings, tapestries or pictorial series) which may have inspired the execution of these paintings and its treatment in the Sibylline series of Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina