"The Young Tarentina"
by the neoclassical sculptor Alexandre Pierre Schoenewerk, 1871, Musée d'Orsay, Paris
The sculptor, in making the marble statue, was inspired by a poem of the same name by the French poet André Chénier. The verses tell the sad story of a beautiful girl from Taranto who embarks on a ship to reach Camarina, the ancient Sicilian city
where her future husband awaits her. On the prow of the ship, intent on contemplating the stars, she is pushed into the water by a sudden and impetuous wind. The girl is dragged to the bottom of the sea and drowns in the waves of the Strait of Sicily. Teti, the most beautiful of the sea nymphs, is moved by the tragedy and begs the other Nereids to help her carry the girl's body to the shores of Camarina beach, so as to save her from the fury of the monsters of the abyss. On the beach, her body is gently placed inside a cedar box, very similar to the one that contained her trousseau, watched over by a mournful procession made up of the Nereids and the nymphs of the nearby woods.