The Vestal Virgin Tuccia

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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This picture is unusual among Moroni’s secular paintings: the others that survive are all portraits. It is the only single-figure allegorical painting known by him and is likely to date from about 1560. The woman may be intended as a personification of Chastity but she also represents the Roman priestess of Vesta, Tuccia. According to legend, when the Vestal Virgin Tuccia was accused of breaking her vows she proved her chastity by carrying water from the River Tiber in a sieve. Moroni shows the sieve as a colander, and the water-line can be seen just above the holes. The inscription on the stone tablet comes from the Roman author Valerius Maximus and means ‘Chastity emerges from the dark clouds of infamy’. Tuccia was frequently included in series of paintings of virtuous women made between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

The Vestal Virgin Tuccia

Date

about 1555

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 152.5 x W 86.9 cm

Accession number

NG3123

Acquisition method

Layard Bequest, 1916

Work type

Painting

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The National Gallery, London

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