Virgil Suspended in a Basket (Lucas van Leyden)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Virgil Suspended in a Basket is an engraving by Lucas van Leyden[1][2].
According to medieval legend, the Roman poet Virgil fell in love with a woman named Febilla. She told him that she would let him visit her by drawing him up in a basket to a tower. Once he was in the basket, she lifted it only half way, leaving him a dangling target of the crowd's ridicule. The emperor ordered his release, but the next day, no fire in Rome would light. Virgilius told them to bring Febilla to a scaffold in the market place and take fire from her. Fire started about her and she had to stand there until everyone had re-lit their fires. In the original Medieval tradition, the fire could only be rekindled from her vagina. The story was very popular with Renaissance artists. The Metropolitan Museum has a Venetian confittiera[3] (ca. 1475–1500) showing Febilla standing on the square with raised skirt, a gift by J. Pierpont Morgan.
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