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拍品专文
This large format engraving depicts story of the Vestal virgin Tuccia, as narrated by Pliny in his Naturalis Historiae. Vestal virgins were priestesses to Vesta, Goddess of the Earth and protectress of the Sacred Fire of the City of Rome. Tuccia's chastity was questioned - an offence punishable by death through immurement. In the present scene Tuccia is shown proving her virginity by miraculously carrying water from the Tiber to the Temple of Vesta with a sieve without spilling a single drop. In the foreground under a tree, a personification of the River Tiber and the she-wolf with Romulus and Remus are witness to the event as eternal representatives of the City of Rome, as well as two angels or genii flying overhead. In the background we see a military parade or procession in front of the cityscape of Rome.
The print was commissioned from Bartholomeus Spranger by the Bohemian aristocrat Peter Vok of Rožmberk (1539-1611), who paid him one hundred guilders for it. Spranger in turn would have commissioned Jacob Matham to engrave the plate according to this design. To our knowledge, no preparatory drawing for the print has survived, but there is a painting by Spranger of the same subject (Private Collection; see Metzler, no. 83), which may have served as a model for the engraving - or may have been painted for Prince Wok after the print commission was completed.
We can only speculate regarding the message Peter Vok wanted to convey with the distribution of this engraving, which is dedicated to himself. Presumably he wished to equate the Vestal's purity with his own loyalty to the Habsburg Empire and Rudolf II.
The print was commissioned from Bartholomeus Spranger by the Bohemian aristocrat Peter Vok of Rožmberk (1539-1611), who paid him one hundred guilders for it. Spranger in turn would have commissioned Jacob Matham to engrave the plate according to this design. To our knowledge, no preparatory drawing for the print has survived, but there is a painting by Spranger of the same subject (Private Collection; see Metzler, no. 83), which may have served as a model for the engraving - or may have been painted for Prince Wok after the print commission was completed.
We can only speculate regarding the message Peter Vok wanted to convey with the distribution of this engraving, which is dedicated to himself. Presumably he wished to equate the Vestal's purity with his own loyalty to the Habsburg Empire and Rudolf II.