Michelangelo's Study of a Libyan Sibyl Tea Towel

Libyan Sibyl Study (1511) is a vintage Renaissance Era fine art in red chalk drawing that Michelangelo (1475–1564) created before completing the fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. This sketch is one of the finest surviving examples of Michelangelo's many drawings for the Sistine ceiling. Ironically, Michelangelo used a male model on which to base this study, the finished painting was of a woman. The sibyl is suspended in a dramatically twisted pose, or contrapposto.