"the subject of our painting is taken from ovid's metamorphoses, apollo promises the sibyl to grant her wish if she agrees to take him as a lover. The sibyl then picks up a handful of sand and asks the god of music to live as many years as she holds grains of sand in her hands. Out of love, apollo offers her what she desires. Like an hourglass, the grains of sand pass through her palms, time passes and her life passes by. The sibyl forgets to ask to stay young, she ends up wishing for death. Rosa treats the same subject in a painting (canvas, 171 x 258 cm) kept at the wallace collection in london. In a rocky forest landscape, apollo is seated, leaning on his lyre in front of the sibyl who holds out her joined hands to him. In an aquaforte rosa reproduces in an almost identical manner the composition of our painting (see l. Salerno, l'opera completa di salvator rosa, milan, 1975, nos. 128 and 128a, reproduced). Rm" [1]. Object Type: painting. Date: 17th century. Dimensions: height: 120 cm (47.2 in); width: 100 cm (39.3 in). Medium: oil on canvas. Collection: Unidentified location. Salvator Rosa - Apollo and Sibyl of Ridges
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