Augustus and the Sibyl
by CORTONA, Pietro da, Oil on canvas
Compared with his great fresco cycles, Cortona’s easel paintings are of secondary importance. But if they alone survived, he would still rank as one of the leading figures of the High Baroque. Compared with his early paintings, in Augustus and the Sibyl the classical and archaeological paraphernalia have grown in importance at the expense of the figures. The meticulous observance of classical decorum shows Cortona in step with the late Poussin.