The Abduction of Proserpine (detail) by Alessandro Allori, 1570.

A Sea Nymph, 1842, Thomas Sully

Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante’ by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun.

Princess Evdokia Ivanovna Golitsyna as Flora (1799). Marie Louise Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun (French, 1755-1842). Oil on canvas. Utah Museum of Fine Arts:

In this mythological portrait, the sitter is shown in the guise of Flora, Roman goddess of flowers and spring. The billowing of her sheer drapery indicates the assistance of Zephyr, the wind god, in her transformation from a nymph to a goddess. In a demonstration of poise, the woman balances a basket of blooms on her head, recalling classical columnar sculptures called caryatids. The Italian-inspired landscape, complete with temple, underscores the ancient domain of the goddess.

Mars and Venus, Allegory of Peace (detail) by Louis Jean François Lagrenée, 1770.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Self Portrait as a Lute Playe

Vasily Andreevich Tropinin - Girl with roses, (1850).

Albrecht Durer c. 1512 Wing of a Roller

Tritoness Relief Applique, late 2nd Century BC, Cleveland Museum of Art: Greek and Roman Art. Bronze with copper inlays.

“I love my life’s dark hours in which my senses quicken and grow deep, while, as from faint incense of faded flowers or letters old, I magically steep myself in days gone by: again I give myself unto the past:—again I live.” — Rainer Maria Rilke, from The Book of Hours; The Book of A Monk’s Life.