DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52600#0109
MATURITY 67
pudicitiae, ut illo quoque saeculo pro exemplo fuerit,
quo impudicitia monstrum erat, non vitium. Is
jam senex et trementi corpore, in quodam jurgio
audivit exprobari sibi os fetidum, et tristis se do-
mum contulit. Cumque uxori questus esset, quare
numquam se monuisset, ut huic vitio mederetur :
Fecissem, inquit ilia, nisi putassem omnibus viris sic
os olere.” 1
Duillius—not represented, however, as an old man—
and the dainty Bilia are seen in the foreground, standing
on a piazza and speaking with each other. At the end
of the open place, to the left, there is a gateway through
which opens the prospect of a street; on the right pillar
of this gateway we read the inscription : dixisem |
TIBI NISI I PVTASEM | OMNIBVS | VIRIS OS | OLERE -
thus, with slight variations, the words which St.
Jerome makes Bilia pronounce.2
1 St. Jerome, Adversus J ovinianum, i. 46 (Migne, Patrologies cursus.
xxiii. 275).
2 Milan. Museo Poldi-Pezzoli. Wooden wedding chest, the front
of which is divided into three compartments. In the middle one is a
coat of arms (per pale argent and gules a bear rampant sable) which
belongs to the Buri family of Verona, as Dr. Gerola kindly informs me ;
in the side compartments are the above circular pictures by Montagna.
R. tondo. Tuccia wears a greenish brown bodice, a vermilion skirt and
an olive green shawl. Behind her, to the left, a youth in dark green
cloak. L. tondo. Duillius wears a vermilion cloak and a black cap ;
Bilia a puce tunic, a dark green mantle and a white kerchief. Ph
Anderson. Two tondi of the same kind as these, yet detached from
their original setting and now in the collection of Sir William Farrer
of London, are known to me only from photographs. They are very
broadly painted and seem to be of a later date than the sister pictures
at Milan. The one relates to the story of the Vestal Claudia—sung by
Ovid in the Fasti (iv. 305 sqqi) and referred to also by St. Jerome in his
above work (i. 41)—who, when the ship which brought the image of
Cybele to Rome had got aground at Ostia, cleared herself from an
accusation of incontinency by pulling it unaided into deep water. The
picture represents the sturdy young woman, striding along the quay of
a canal and pulling at a rope attached to the prow of a large vessel,
pudicitiae, ut illo quoque saeculo pro exemplo fuerit,
quo impudicitia monstrum erat, non vitium. Is
jam senex et trementi corpore, in quodam jurgio
audivit exprobari sibi os fetidum, et tristis se do-
mum contulit. Cumque uxori questus esset, quare
numquam se monuisset, ut huic vitio mederetur :
Fecissem, inquit ilia, nisi putassem omnibus viris sic
os olere.” 1
Duillius—not represented, however, as an old man—
and the dainty Bilia are seen in the foreground, standing
on a piazza and speaking with each other. At the end
of the open place, to the left, there is a gateway through
which opens the prospect of a street; on the right pillar
of this gateway we read the inscription : dixisem |
TIBI NISI I PVTASEM | OMNIBVS | VIRIS OS | OLERE -
thus, with slight variations, the words which St.
Jerome makes Bilia pronounce.2
1 St. Jerome, Adversus J ovinianum, i. 46 (Migne, Patrologies cursus.
xxiii. 275).
2 Milan. Museo Poldi-Pezzoli. Wooden wedding chest, the front
of which is divided into three compartments. In the middle one is a
coat of arms (per pale argent and gules a bear rampant sable) which
belongs to the Buri family of Verona, as Dr. Gerola kindly informs me ;
in the side compartments are the above circular pictures by Montagna.
R. tondo. Tuccia wears a greenish brown bodice, a vermilion skirt and
an olive green shawl. Behind her, to the left, a youth in dark green
cloak. L. tondo. Duillius wears a vermilion cloak and a black cap ;
Bilia a puce tunic, a dark green mantle and a white kerchief. Ph
Anderson. Two tondi of the same kind as these, yet detached from
their original setting and now in the collection of Sir William Farrer
of London, are known to me only from photographs. They are very
broadly painted and seem to be of a later date than the sister pictures
at Milan. The one relates to the story of the Vestal Claudia—sung by
Ovid in the Fasti (iv. 305 sqqi) and referred to also by St. Jerome in his
above work (i. 41)—who, when the ship which brought the image of
Cybele to Rome had got aground at Ostia, cleared herself from an
accusation of incontinency by pulling it unaided into deep water. The
picture represents the sturdy young woman, striding along the quay of
a canal and pulling at a rope attached to the prow of a large vessel,