Cloelie vierge rommanie · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Cloelie vierge rommanie
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Italy; Ancient Rome
Description: This illumination depicts Cloelia, a young Roman woman, riding a horse through a deep river with many women looking at her from behind a wall. Boccaccio explains that Cloelia was given to a foreign king as a hostage, and when she escaped, she took many other hostages with her to get back to Rome. The other women in the image are still captive as they are behind a wall and reaching out towards Cloelia for help. While escaping, she came across a river that was too treacherous to pass. She found a horse, and despite never having ridden one, she got herself and the other women across safely by means of this horse.
Image Creator: Robinet Testard (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:18022
Language: frm
Source Name: Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme [Boccaccio, The cleric and noble women, anonymous French translation]
Parent Collection: Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme. Illuminations by Robinet Testard (1488-1496); Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme. Illuminations by Robinet Testard (1488-1496)
Image: mta_18022_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Important Women; Famous Women; Hostages; Cloelia