Painting of Vestal by Pietro Saja, now in the Palazzo Reale, Caserta. Pictured in "Civiltà dell'Ottocento: Le Arti Figurative."

We have just discovered a painting very similar to one of our own, in the book Civiltà dell’Ottocento: Le Arti Figurative. This painting by Pietro Saja (1779-1833), depicting a  Vestal condemned to death for breaking her vow of chastity, apparently won the artist great praise and recognition when he presented it in Rome in 1803: within a month Saja was invited to join the prestigious Academy of Saint Luke. The neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova, another member of the Academy, wrote to a friend to “make many praises of [Saja]… assuring me that he is a youth of highest ability… and that he is going to make great profit and progress.” ¹

This painting by Saja, which is now in the Palazzo Reale in Caserta, appears to be about contemporary to the one 

Painting of Vestal in the collection of Carlton Hobbs.

in the Carlton Hobbs collection. The paintings share the same subject: a Vestal reclining morosely in a small chamber (possibly a tomb) after having received the sentence of burial alive for breaking her vow of chastity. The composition and lighting of the two paintings are almost identical, with a only few small differences. These include the Vestal’s veil (which falls in front of her face in the Palazzo Reale painting but not in the Carlton Hobbs painting), the placement of the drapery and the shape of the bed, and the positions of the vases. The Palazzo Reale painting shows a small vase at the edge of the window sill and a large vase at the foot of the bed. In the Carlton Hobbs painting the large vase is near the head of the bed, and the small vase seems to be farther back on the window sill, almost entirely out of sight, though its shadow is visible on the wall.

We are going to look into getting more information on the two paintings, starting with a full translation of the entry in Civilità dell’Ottocento. Keep checking in for updates!

Footnotes:

1. Cassani, Silvia, ed. Civiltà dell’Ottocento: Le Arti Figurative. Naples: Electa Napoli, 1997. 433, Fig. 17.1.