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The Brooklyn Museum

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Virginia




signature image

Judy Chicago (American, b. 1939). The Dinner Party (Heritage Floor; detail), 1974–79. Porcelain with rainbow and gold luster, 48 x 48 x 48 ft. (14.6 x 14.6 x 14.6 m). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, 2002.10. © Judy Chicago. Photograph by Jook Leung Photography

Virginia
Legendary, known in ancient Rome, beginning circa 450 B.C.

Virginia (Verginia) was purportedly a Roman citizen of great beauty. Appius Claudius, a decemvir, or political official associated with the writing of laws, lusted after her but she was already engaged, so he paid a friend to claim that Virginia's mother had been his slave and therefore she was his property. Her father, Virginius, seeing that there was no hope to free his daughter, killed her with a butcher knife in the public marketplace. This event incited a political revolt in which Appius Claudius and the decemvirs were overthrown and the Roman Republic restored.

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Sophia

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Last updated January 29, 2007.
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