The Sacred Fire: two Vestal Virgins tending the hearth

The present work is one of several compositions by Raoux depicting Vestal Virgins (see, for example, the painting in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille, exhibited Tradition and Revolution in French Art 1700-1880, National Gallery, London, 1993, no. 86). The Vestal Virgins are depicted here tending the sacred fire in honor of the Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth.