The Vestal Claudia Towing the Ship Bearing the Statue of Cybele

In 204 BC, with Hannibal's army still in Italy, the Romans sent to Asia Minor for the sacred image of Cybele, the Great Mother of the gods, hoping she would help them win the war. Ovid tells in his Fasti what happened at the mouth of the Tiber. The ship carrying the goddess ran aground, and no amount of hauling would shift it. Claudia Quinta, a young woman whispered about because she took such care over her looks, prayed to Cybele, tied her girdle to the ship and pulled the ship free on her own, and the rumours died with the miracle. Garofalo painted her around 1527 with her back to us, slight, towing the great hull with no visible effort, while dignitaries and a band of musicians follow along the bank, the start of the goddess's festive entry into the city. The Rome he put behind them is the Rome of his own century. On the skyline stand the Colosseum and Castel Sant'Angelo, built hundreds of years after the event, in versions the museum calls a little naive archaeologically. In 1632 the canvas was in Ferrara, in the collection of Roberto Canonici, whose inventory valued it at 300 scudi and noticed even the two dogs in the crowd, one stretched out on the ground and one standing.