Persian Sibyl

Opaque glass mosaic, designed by William Blake Richmond, executed by Messrs Powell of Whitefriars, completed by 1896



The Sibyls, female prophets of the ancient world, made predictions relevant to Christian belief, and are therefore at time included in religious cycles, most famously Michelangelo’s frescoes for Sistine Chapel, Vatican, painted 1508-1512. William Blake Richmond chose the Persian and the Delphic Sibyl for the group of twelve Biblical and historic figures shown on either side of the clerestory windows; they are the only women depicted in this series.



The Persian Sibyl predicted the rule of Alexander the Great, who very appropriately is depicted on the mosaic next to her (mosaic no. 8680).



Brief description: the Sibyl as a young woman with white headscarf and patterned dress, seated with an open book on her left, inscribed “PERSICA”; raising her right hand in a defensive gesture, in the background a flurry of angels’ wings with three bodies emerging from it; her left foot rests on a staircase and a cartouche, similar to those at the bottom of the other clerestory mosaics, which are decorated with a pattern of blue-green trees and red stags, on a golden ground



Related quotes:

Browne 1896, pp. 13-14: “To the west is the Persian Sibyl, Persica, with three winged figures bringing the revelation. All the details of the robes of the Sibyls, and of the architectural and other features of the composition are exceedingly rich. The effect produced by the intentional roughness and irregularities of the setting of the tesserae, and the variations of the angle at which they are set, is very striking, whether the spectator is close at hand or far off. Below the window [destroyed during the Second World War] are the inscriptions O sapientia veni ad docendum nos, O Oriens splendour veni et illumina nos, ‘O Wisdom come and teach us, O splendour of the East, com and enlighten us.’ These are portions of ancient Antiphone to the Magnificat for December 16 and 20.”



Related work elsewhere: Sketch in pencil inscribed twice “Study for the Persian Sibyl” and numbered 26, 20 x 14 1/2 inches, private collection (The Victorian Eye, exh. London, 2013, no. 18)

Literature and references: Browne 1896, pp. 13-14.