CARON, Antoine
(b. 1521, Beauvais, d. 1599, Paris)

Augustus and the Sibyl

1575-80
Oil on canvas, 125 x 170 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Caron, who was Catherine de Medicis' official artist and whose paintings often seem to echo the royal fêtes, shows here the Emperor Augustus on his knees in front of the Sibyl, who gestures towards the Virgin and Child in the heavens. The architectural setting, reminiscent of theatre decor, shows the Seine and possibly certain monuments of Paris modified by the artist's imagination on the right-hand side.