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Tuccia and Her Sieve: the Nachleben of the Vestal in Art

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Tuccia and Her Sieve: the Nachleben of the Vestal in Art KU LEUVEN FACULTY OF ARTS BLIJDE INKOMSTSTRAAT 21 BOX 3301 3000 LEUVEN, BELGIË Tuccia and her sieve: The Nachleben of the Vestal in art. Sarah Eycken Presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Art History Supervisor: prof. dr. Barbara Baert Lector: Katlijne Van der Stighelen Academic year 2017-2018 371.201 characters (without spaces) KU LEUVEN FACULTY OF ARTS BLIJDE INKOMSTSTRAAT 21 BOX 3301 3000 LEUVEN, BELGIË I hereby declare that, in line with the Faculty of Arts’ code of conduct for research integrity, the work submitted here is my own original work and that any additional sources of information have been duly cited. I! Abstract This master dissertation on the Nachleben in art of the Vestal Tuccia and her sieve, tries to chart the motif’s course throughout the history of art, using a transhistorical approach excluding an exhaustive study which lies outside the confines of this paper. Nevertheless, different iconographical types of the representations of Tuccia, as well as of their relative importance, were established. The role of Tuccia in art history and, by ex- tension, literature, is not very substantial, but nonetheless significant. An interdisciplinary perspective is adopted with an emphasis on gender, literature, anthropology and religion. In the Warburgian spirit, the art forms discussed in this dissertation are various, from high art to low art: paintings, prints, emblemata, cas- soni, spalliere, etc. The research starts with a discussion on the role of the Vestal Virgins in the Roman Re- public. The tale of the Vestal Virgin Tuccia and her paradoxically impermeable sieve, which was a symbol of her chastity, has spoken to the imagination of artists throughout the ages. Authors from Antiquity such as Valerius Maximus sung her praises and the early Church Fathers Augustine and Tertullian mentioned her legend in their Christian treatises. Tuccia really became a symbol, as seen in several Mannerist prints, of an unblemished city of Rome. From the Late Middle Ages onwards, the motif of Tuccia and her sieve emerged in art throughout Europe. The importance of Tuccia in humanistic iconographical conventions of chastity is derived through seven case studies. In the emblem literature, the impermeable sieve became an important attribute to the personification of Castità or Chastity. Depictions of the story of Tuccia were found regularly in the female private sphere, as she epitomized the ideal of chastity before and after marriage. She functioned as an exemplar for prospective brides, who owned cassoni (wedding chests) decorated with a representation of Tuccia and her sieve. Furthermore, several women identified with the Roman Vestal as they took on her role in portraits historiés. She was also christianized in art. As a pagan Mary, Tuccia’s exemplarity was even more highlighted. The imagery of the woman as a container, bound the Virgin Mother, as a honorabile vas, together with Tuccia and her container-sieve. Lastly, as a kind ofsynthesis of the previous chapters, the Sieve Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I were closely examined. The sieve in the Siena Sieve Portrait denotes the irre- versible turn of Elizabeth I to a life of virginity -- the sieve being a symbol of the Virgin Queen’s eroto-poli- tics. Elizabeth’s chosen virginity was, however, criticized by her contemporaries, such as Shakespeare among others. Nonetheless, by identifying herself with Tuccia, she placed herself above all other women, who were commonly ridiculed as “leaky vessels” in contemporary city comedies. Combining the connota- tions of chastity and imperialism, Tuccia’s sieve perfectly embodied the Virgin Queen, who was also an Im- perialist Queen. II! Contents Abstract i Bibliography iv Preface xxiii 1. Introduction 1 2. Tuccia, the Vestal Virgin 5 2.1. Vestal Virgins and their ambiguous status 6 2.2. Pollution and punishment: the live interment of Vestal Virgins 16 2.3. Tuccia, symbol of an untainted Rome 20 3. Castitas and Cassoni: Tuccia as Female Role Mode 37 3.1. The views on women in the early modern society and its culture 38 3.1.1. Late Middle Ages and Renaissance 39 3.1.2. Seventeenth century 50 3.1.3. Eighteenth century 54 3.2. Sieves and containers 57 3.3. Case Studies 63 3.3.1. Cassoni 64 3.3.2. The Vestal Virgin Tuccia, Moretto da Brescia 70 3.3.3. The Vestal Tuccia Trampling a Snake, Marcello Venusti (attributed to) 72 3.3.4. Ritratto di Vittoria Della Rovere in veste di Tuccia, Justus Sustermans 75 3.3.5. Tuccia trasporta l'acqua col setaccio, Giovanni Battista Beinaschi 80 3.3.6. La Vestale ‘Tuxia’, Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain 84 3.3.7. Alcova Torlonia, Filippo Bigioli 86 [Continues on next page] III! 4. Queen Elizabeth I, a Modern Tuccia 91 4.1. The Sieve Portraits in context 92 4.1.1. The Anjou match 93 4.1.2. Analysis of the Sieve Portraits 98 4.2. Leaky vessels 114 4.3. Elizabeth I’s Queenship and the Vestal model 127 Conclusion 140 Appendix 1: Classical Texts Featuring Tuccia in English Translations 142 Appendix 2: Translations of the Latin Captions of Prints Depicting Tuccia 146 List of Figures 151 !IV Bibliography Works Baert, Barbara. “‘Jij hebt mijn hart verwond.’ Hooglied in beeld.” In Hooglied. Bijbelse liefde in beeld, woord en klank, ed. by Hans Ausloos and Ignace Bossuyt, 59-108. Leuven: VBS-Acco, 2008. ————. “‘Hoe zal dat gebeuren?’ De Annunciatie en de zichtbare onzichtbaarheid.” In Echter dan werkelijkheid?, ed. by Edwin Koster en Henry Jansen, 40-60. Zoetermeer: Uitgeverij Meinema, 2011. ————, Liesbet Kusters, and Emma Sidgwick. “An Issue of Blood: The Healing of the Women with the Haemorrhage (Mark 5.24B-34; Luke 8.42B-48; Matthew 9.19-22) in Early Medieval Visual Culture.” Journal of Religion and Health 51, 3 (2012): 663-681. ————. “An Odour, a Taste, a Touch. 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London: Profile Books, 2016. ————. Women & Power: A Manifesto. London: Profile Books/ London Review of Books, 2017. Beauvoir, Simone de. Le deuxième sexe. 2 vols. Paris: Gallimard, 1949. Bell, Ilona. Elizabethan Women and the Poetry of Courtship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Bennett, Judith M. History Matters: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism. Philadelphia: Uni- versity of Penssylvania Press, 2006. Berry, Lloyd E (ed.). John Stubbs’s Gaping Gulf with Letters and Other Relevant Documents. Fol- ger Documents of Tudor and Stuart Civilization. Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 1968. Benadusi, Giovanna. “The Gender Politics of Vittoria della Rovere.” In Medici Women: The Making of a Dynasty in Grand Ducal Tuscany, ed. by Giovanna Benadusi and Judith C. Brown, 266-303. Essays and Studies 36, ed. by Konrad Eisenbichler. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renais- sance Studies, 2015. Bindley, T.H (ed.). The Apology of Tertullian. 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