Detail ; No other work by Gossaert provides a better idea of his Antwerp Mannerist phase, characterized by exaggerated yet somewhat wooden gestures, elaborate architecture featuring loggias, towers, and other fanciful constructions, fantastic costumes with fluttering draperies, and a tendency to fill every empty space with ornament and hatching. Notwithstanding the crowded composition, Gossaert managed to retain an admirable clarity. The subject, popular among Antwerp artists of the period, depicts members of the Roman senate desiring to deify the Roman emperor Augustus, who modestly turned to the sibyl of Tivoli to find out if anyone greater than he would ever be born. The sibyl pointed to the sky, where a vision of the Virgin holding the Christ Child appeared, and spoke: "This child is greater than you, and it is he that you must worship." The chained bear at lower right may be a symbol of converted paganism. (http://www.metmuseum.org)