...; sale, Bath (Auctioneum), 2 November 2024, no. 26 (as 'early 19th century') to the dealer Sam Fogg Ltd, London, 2024; from whom, purchased by the museum with the support of the Van Litsenburg Fonds, 2025

Object number: BK-2025-25

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Van Litsenburg Fonds

In the sixteenth century, painted and silver-stained glass roundels adorned countless windows in ecclesiastical and public secular buildings, as well as private homes. They were often conceived as a series, enabling a story to be told distributed across multiple windows in a room. The present roundel with the Triumph of Chastity very likely belonged to a series centred on Petrarch’s (Francesco Petrarca 1304-1374) famous allegorical poem, I Trionfi. The series begins with triumphant Love, which Chastity conquers but only before succumbing to Death. Fame then vanquishes Death but falls in defeat to Time. Ultimately, Divinity triumphs over all.

In the present roundel, above in the clouds, the personification of Chastity with her flowing hair triumphs over lustful love, embodied by Cupid. Chastity has blindfolded him and tied his hands behind his back, so he can no longer shoot his love arrows. Appearing below in an interior space are three examples of chastity, all described in Petrarch’s poem. Left of centre, we see a depiction of the Old Testament story in which Joseph manages to escape the seduction of the wife of his enslaver, Potiphar, the captain of pharaoh’s guard.¹¹Genesis 39:6-20; Petrarch, I Trionfi, ‘Trionfo della Castità’ I, 193. Here the scene symbolizes male chastity. After several failed attempts to seduce the handsome Joseph, Potiphar’s wife makes one last try, seizing him by his mantle. Joseph escapes her grasp, lets his mantle fall to the ground and flees the room. Potiphar’s wife subsequently twists the story around, falsely accusing the young man of rape and presenting the mantle as evidence, a lie that ultimately lands Joseph in prison.

Right of centre, we witness the scene of Verginia’s public killing by her father, Lucius Verginius, so that she would not have to marry Appius Claudius Crassus.²²I wish to thank prof. dr. em. Ilja Veldman for the correct interpretation of this scene. This Roman consul and decemvir had managed to ensnare Verginia in his power by nefarious means.³³Livy, Ab urbe condita, III, 44-48; Petrarch, I Trionfi, 'Trionfo della Castità’ I, 136. The father saw his daughter’s death as the only way to liberate her. Both Livy and Petrarch compare Verginia to the beautiful Lucretia,⁴⁴Livy I, 57-59; Petrarch, I Trionfi, ‘Trionfo della Castità’ I, 132. whose story is accordingly depicted in the background far right. After being raped by Sextus Tarquinius Superbus, son of the last Roman king, the virtuous noblewoman Lucretia commits suicide. We witness the moment Lucretia leans into a sword in the presence of her maidservants, with whom she was chastely spinning wool when attacked in her home. Verginia and Lucretia shared the same fate, as victims of their chastity.

We can identify the subject of our roundel indeed as Petrarch’s Triumph of Chastity thanks to two related workshop drawings and a second surviving glass roundel, showing other triumphs described by Petrarch.⁵⁵My thanks to Kees Berserik (The Hague) for drawing my attention to the drawings. All are nearly the same in size and share a similar composition containing the characteristic semicircular wreath of billowing clouds. In the execution of the lines and detailing, the workshop drawings of the Triumph of Love⁶⁶Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, inv. no. z 02730, diam. 231 mm. and the Triumph of Divinity⁷⁷Bremen, Kunsthalle, inv. no. 1951/21, diam. approx. 236.5 mm. quite closely approximate the present roundel. While the latter displays a nuanced use of silver stain for the yellow hues and a convincing rendering of movement, light and shadow, the roundel of the Triumph of Love,⁸⁸Rochester (NY), Memorial Art Gallery, inv. no. 2023.5, diam. 23.8 cm. though following the composition of the Cologne drawing, is less refined and stylistically very different, suggesting it was produced at a later time in another workshop. On stylistic grounds, the series’ original design can be situated in the Antwerp workshop of Pieter Coecke van Aelst circa 1530.

Matthias Ubl, 2026
This entry was first published as a ‘Recent Acquisition’ in The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 74 (2026) no. 1, pp. 72-73 (no. 3)

Literature
Unpublished

Matthias Ubl, 2026, 'anonymous, Triumph of Chastity (Castitas) from Petrarch's 'I Trionfi', Antwerp, c. 1530', in Acquisitions Published in the Rijksmuseum Bulletin, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200902639