西比拉

Velazquez painted this around 1632, soon after coming home from his first trip to Italy and settling in as court painter to Philip the Fourth in Madrid. A woman is seen in strict profile, holding a plain tablet or board. She is a sibyl, one of the prophetesses of the ancient pagan world whom later Christians believed had foretold the coming of Christ, and the blank tablet stands for her prophecy. But the face may be closer to home. An old palace inventory recorded it as a likeness of Juana, the painter's wife and the daughter of his first master, Francisco Pacheco. He keeps her almost severe, lit from the side, with none of the props a mythological picture usually carries.