Botticelli, Sandro (c.1445-1510)
Storia di Virginia Romana (The Story of Virginia)
c.1505
Tempera on panel, 83.3 x 165.5 cm
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo
Botticelli embodies the cultured and antiquing climate that reigned in the Florence of Lorenzo the Magnificent. The painting, which is located in the last phase of its journey, originally served as a backrest and was inserted into a coating that covered the walls of a private environment. Botticelli depicts the different moments of a story narrated by Tito Livio which celebrates female honor and chastity as virtues to be defended at the cost of life. The decemvir Appius Claudius, having fallen in love with the young Virginia, instructs Marcus Claudius to kidnap her. Defended by bystanders, the girl is brought before a tribunal presided over by Appius, who declares her a slave of Marco. Her father, to defend her honor, strikes her to death, to the pain of family members and citizens, who drive the decemvirs out of Rome. (ACB)
See also:
• Livy (59 BC-17 AD)