# Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl

[View the canonical artwork record](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/cerrini-giovanni-domenico-r2bc6f547b03907/apollo-and-the-cumaean-sibyl-re6055f8600da6d>)

## Artwork

- Artist: [CERRINI, Giovanni Domenico](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/cerrini-giovanni-domenico-r2bc6f547b03907>)
- Date: 1601-1650
- Technique: Oil on canvas, 102 x 135 cm

## Commentary

Ovid \(Metamorphoses 14:130-153\) tells how the Sibyl of Cumae, in southern Italy, was loved by Apollo.He bribed her by offering to prolong her life for as many years as there were grains in a heap of dust, in return for her embraces. She refused him and although he kept his word, he denied her perpetual youth, so she was commanded to centuries as a wizened crone. In the painting the Sibyl, a young woman is shown standing before the sitting Apollo holding out her cupped hand which contains the heap of dust.

## Related artworks

- [Allegory of Human Fragility](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/cerrini-giovanni-domenico-r2bc6f547b03907/allegory-of-human-fragility-rea7c7c6ee6fb54>)

## Attribution

[Web Gallery of Art](<https://beta.wga.hu/pages/about>)