Angelica Kauffmann (1741–1807), Portrait of a Lady as a Vestal Virgin, 1781/82;

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister

Dressed in a classical-style robe and veil and holding a Roman oil-lamp, the woman in the portrait appears in the guise of a vestal virgin: a priestess to Vesta, goddess of the hearth fire. In the eighteenth century many women had themselves portrayed as vestal virgins in order to be stylised as chaste and virtuous guardians of the family. Kauffmann's history portraits were frequently copied.