Cameos have often depicted the Virgin and Child, especially throughout the Roman Catholic religion. Tender images of the Virgin Mary with her son are among the most beloved in Christian art. Even early images from about the 6th century AD depict her gently cradling or supporting a haloed child or infant on her lap. Devotion to Mary in her dual role as the human mother of Jesus and a divine entity reached a peak in the 14th to 16th centuries, creating great demand for depictions of the mother and child. The term Madonna is Italian for “my lady” and was conferred as a title of respect or high rank, but came to be synonymous with the mother of the holy child and also with the physical representation or manifestation of the two. Small works of art depicting this theme were generally objects of personal worship and prayer intended for intimate use in a private setting, usually a home or a small chapel. Larger and more expansive scenes were produced for altars in public churches, often commissioned by a family or guild as an expression of devotion and an outward display of wealth. Over the centuries different themes emerged, but always with the mother and child as central figures in the scene. Reference: The National Gallery of Art

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Information on Tuccia and her depiction in cameos. Tuccia was one of the priestesses of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth in ancient Rome. In order to best perform their task – the maintenance of the Vesta’s sacred fire, which was of the highest importance for the security of Rome – the Vestal Virgins had to take a vow of chastity and so were freed from social obligations such as marriage and maternity. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Vestals became a symbol for Republican virtue, evoked by the discovery of the Temple of Vesta in Rome and the rediscovery of Pompeii in 1748.

When her chastity was questioned, she had to prove her innocence by carrying a sieve filled with water without it leaking. Subjects from Antiquity, as well as motifs from Greek mythology such as Eurydice and the serpent,  inspired stone cutters and gem engravers, such as the Pichler family. The half-brothers Luigi and Giovanni Pichler, born in Italy to the Tyrolean goldsmith Anton Pichler, both studied under Neoclassical artists and soon became the most sought-after engravers of the 18th century, particularly because of the sharpness and clarity of their cameos and intaglios of highest quality. The Pichlers received commissions from all over the world, among them one from Empress Josephine for a cameo of the Pope Pius VII, which she gave to Napeoleon I. Reference: Sotheby’s

By the late Middle Ages, the image of Tuccia and her sieve became associated with the virtue of chastity. Paintings of chaste women would often include a sieve and this symbol figures prominently in many depictions of England’s “Virgin Queen” Elizabeth I in the late sixteenth century. Reference: Wikipedia

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