Michel Delon : The mythology of the vestal.
Roman vestal virgins became, in the 18th Century, the heroines both of the philosophical fight against ecclesiastical celibacy and forced vows, and of the neoclassical struggle against rococo affectedness. They appear in all the literary forms, from the novel (for example that of de Mailly) to the theatre (the tragedy of Dubois-Fontanelle) and from poetry (Le Suire) to the essay (the abbé Nadal) ; they are present in all the arts : painting (Diderot shows interest of this theme in his Salons), sculpture (Houdon, Clodion), music (opera of Jouy and Spontini, and later that of Mercadante). The imagination centred on the condamnation of guilty vestals, who were buried alive. This Antiquity is seen as sadistic and "gothic".
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