How you can use this image

This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).

Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.

The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Buy a print or image licence

You can purchase this reproduction

If you have any products in your basket we recommend that you complete your purchase from Art UK before you leave our site to avoid losing your purchases.

Order a print

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

The Samian Sibyl was one of 12 pagan sibyls (or priestesses) who, like the Old Testament prophets, were said to have foretold the coming of Christ. The Samian Sibyl, named after the Greek island of Samos, was an oracle of Apollo and prophesied that Christ would be born to a virgin mother, as the inscription on her scroll indicates.Sibyls were popular in Italian art and were commonly shown with books or scrolls, alluding to the Sybilline Books in which their prophecies were recorded. Here the Samian Sibyl rests her elbow on one book while reading from another, and a large tome sits on the table in front of her, open at a page with elegant script. This painting was made in 1651 for Gioseffo Locatelli of Cesena. Guercino also made The Cumaean Sibyl with a Putto for Locatelli (also in the National Gallery collection) but was convinced by Prince Mattias de' Medici to sell it to him instead, so The Samian Sibyl was produced as its replacement.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

The Samian Sibyl with a Putto

Date

1651

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 218.5 x W 180 cm

Accession number

NG6618

Acquisition method

Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Gallery, 2012

Work type

Painting

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

View venue

Artist or maker

Guercino

1591–1666

View profile

The Angel appears to Hagar and Ishmael The National Gallery, London
Saint John the Baptist Christ Church, University of Oxford
The Cumaean Sibyl with a Putto The National Gallery, London
The Samian Sibyl with a Putto The National Gallery, London
Saint Gregory the Great with Saints Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier The National Gallery, London
The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple The National Gallery, London
The Woman Taken in Adultery Dulwich Picture Gallery
47 more