The Vestal Virgin Tuccia | |
---|---|
Veiled Woman | |
Artist | Antonio Corradini |
Year | 1743 |
Type | Sculpture |
Medium | Marble |
Dimensions | 230 cm(91 in) |
Location | Palazzo Barberini, Rome |
The Vestal Virgin Tuccia (Italian : La Vestale Tuccia) or Veiled Woman (Italian : La Velata) is a marble sculpture created in 1743 by Antonio Corradini, a Venetian Rococo sculptor known for his illusory depictions of female allegorical figures covered with veils that reveal the fine details of the forms beneath. [1] [2] The work is housed in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome.
Corradini's subject is Tuccia, an ancient Roman Vestal Virgin who was wrongly accused of being unchaste. She proved her innocence by miraculously carrying water in a sieve from the Tiber River to the Temple of Vesta without spilling a drop. In Corradini's depiction, she holds the sieve on her left hip.
The artist began working on Tuccia shortly after he arrived in Rome from Vienna. [3] He must have been aware of the significance of Tuccia and Vestals to the city. In antiquity, a Vestal's virginity ensured the smooth functioning of the Roman Republic. If a Vestal were sexually active, her impure state actually posed a threat to the Republic, which is why unchaste Vestals were buried alive. [4]
This effort was not the first time Corradini addressed the subject. In 1724 he sculpted a bust of a Vestal which today is a part of the collection of the Skulpturensammlung in Dresden. [5] [6] A 1733 portfolio of engravings illustrating sculptures in Dresden's Skulpturensammlung collection includes a picture of a veiled Tuccia, presumably by Corradini. [3] [7] [8]
The completed sculpture was displayed in Corradini's studio near the Palazzo Barberini. There, it gained a good measure of notoriety and fame. The Jacobite pretender to the English throne, James Stuart, and Pope Benedict XIV both visited the studio to view the veiled Tuccia. [3] [9]
The work was never sold. When Corradini moved to Naples to begin work on the Cappella Sansevero, Tuccia remained at the Palazzo Barberini where it can be found today. Corradini's friend, the painter and caricaturist Pier Leone Ghezzi, offered an explanation: "the Roman lords" did not approve "out of envy". [3] [7] [10]
There are three iconographic elements employed by Corradini in The Vestal Virgin Tuccia: the veil, the sieve, and the rose that she holds in her left hand. While it is appropriate to depict a Vestal with a veil, the shoulder-length veil called a suffibulum that covered the head but not the face of a Vestal [11] bears little resemblance to the large clinging veils favored by the artist. Traditionally, veils are associated with modesty and chastity [1] (e.g., in the Hebrew Bible, Rebecca covers herself with a veil before meeting Isaac). However, Corradini's treatment serves to highlight the flesh beneath the veil, in this case, her belly and breasts, which belies the theme he is purportedly portraying. [12] Because of their association with Tuccia, sieves have always been associated with virginity. During the Renaissance, Queen Elizabeth I was famously depicted in a series of "sieve portraits" emphasizing her status as the "Virgin Queen". [13] The iconography of roses is quite varied, ranging from victory and pride to love. In this context, the association with the purity of the Virgin Mary is probably the most apt. [14]
Nearly a decade later in Naples, Corradini again used the elements of the veil and roses when crafting his last work, La Pudicizia (variously translated as Modesty or Chastity). Although the new sculptural group is more complex than Tuccia, the artist was creating La Pudicizia in the manner of Tuccia with a very similar transparent veil over the front of the subject's torso. [9]
At the end of the 18th century, Innocenzo Spinazzi used Tuccia as his modello for a depiction of the Allegory of Faith commissioned for a chapel in Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi in Florence. A similar contrapposto stance, twisted upper torso, and a long contour-hugging veil characterize the sculpture. [15]
In the mid-19th century, there was a resurgence in popularity of the veiled woman motif after the example of Corradini partially due to the image of a veiled woman becoming an allegory for Italian unification. [16] Artists including Giovanni Strazza, Raffaelle Monti, Pietro Rossi, and Giovanni Maria Benzoni contributed to the genre. Monti's kneeling Veiled Vestal represents a more modest approach to the Vestal Virgin subject.
Gian LorenzoBernini was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture.
In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals were priestesses of Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame.
Tuccia, was an ancient Roman Vestal Virgin. Its supposed by her nomen that she belonged to the Gens Tuccia. She is known for an incident in which her chastity was questioned by a spurious accusation. The punishment for vestal virgins who lost their chastity were if they could not prove their innocence - were to be sentenced to immurment. In Tuccia's case, to save her reputation and life she utilized a flat perforated basket to carry water, from the Tiber to the Temple of Vesta without the water falling to the ground through the sieve.
The Veiled Virgin is a Carrara marble statue carved in Rome by Italian sculptor Giovanni Strazza (1818–1875) depicting the bust of a veiled Virgin Mary. The exact date of the statue's completion is unknown, but it was probably in the early 1850s. The veil gives the appearance of being translucent, but is carved of marble. The technique is similar to Giuseppe Sanmartino's 1753 statue Veiled Christ in the Cappella Sansevero in Naples.
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Antonio Corradini was an Italian Rococo sculptor from Venice. He is best known for his illusory veiled depictions of the human body, where the contours of the face and body beneath the veil are discernible.
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Andrea Camassei was an Italian Baroque painter and engraver mainly active in Rome under the patronage of the Barberini.
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Veiled Christ is a carved marble sculpture completed in 1753 by the Neapolitan artist Giuseppe Sanmartino. It is formed from a single block of white marble, and was commissioned by Raimondo di Sangro, a prince of Sansevero, as the centerpiece of the Cappella Sansevero, in Naples, Italy.
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