Indian ink drawing of statues of vestals in the Roman forum amidst the vegetation. In the background, on the left, the temple of Romulus and on the right the basilica of Santa Francesca Romana.

The different graphic treatments, all in scribbled foliage and all in lines of force of the old stones, catch our eye and make it wander through the numerous perspectives: The verticality of the bodies of the vestals and the bell tower of the basilica in the background, the descending diagonal of the bases of the statues, the ascending diagonal of the pathway leading to the temple of Romulus, the clouds rising in smoke … The silence of this drawing makes us feel the timeless and romantic force of this place where consecrated women kept the sacred fire of the City.

By placing the only intact vestal virgin in the centre of the sheet at the same level as the bell tower of the Roman basilica, the artist perhaps indirectly testifies to her own artistic commitment, which she also made at a very young age, and which the success of the new pictorial “religions” has not distracted from its mission.