De Claudia quinta muliere romana · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: De Claudia quinta muliere romana
Subject: Famous Women; Claudia Quinta; Chastity; Virtue; Goddesses; Important Women
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Italy; Ancient Rome
Description: This engraving depicts Claudia Quinta, a Roman woman, standing on land as she pulls a ship to shore. Boccaccio explains that after Claudia Quinta was accused by other matrons of not being chaste, she prayed to the goddess Ceres to help prove her virtue. After a ship that contained a statue of Ceres had gotten stuck on a sandbar, Ceres gave Claudia Quinta the power to pull the ship to shore as proof of her chastity. The women who accused Claudia Quinta of being unchaste are standing behind her in the engraving as they watch her pull the ship to shore. The statue of the goddess is illustrated on top of a platform on the ship. Claudia Quinta’s name is engraved below her body to identify her.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:16690
Language: lat
Source Name: De Claris Mulieribus
Parent Collection: 1473 Ulm; 1473 Ulm
Image: mta_16690_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Famous Women; Claudia Quinta; Chastity; Virtue; Goddesses; Important Women