Carved from cream-white marble, a woman stands next to a hip-high, three-legged table in this free-standing sculpture. Her weight rests on her left leg, her right knee bent. She wears a flower crown over a garment that covers her head and falls in sweeping, voluminous folds to her sandaled feet. An urn is tucked into her left elbow and she holds a saucer-like dish in her right hand down by her side to pour oil onto the flames on the altar below. She looks down toward the altar, which is decorated with a ram’s head and garlands.

Gallery mode Full size at the museum

A Vestal

Clodion (French, 1738 - 1814)

1770

Medium: marble
Classification: Sculpture
Dimensions: overall: 95.5 x 42.1 x 35 cm (37 5/8 x 16 9/16 x 13 3/4 in.) ; gross weight: 88.451 kg (195 lb.)
Culture: French
Museum: National Gallery of Art, CSD
Credit line: Samuel H. Kress Collection
Rights: Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it: Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art

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