Nature or Abundance

painting by Léon Frédéric (Museum: Dallas Museum of Art)

Adorned with the splendors of nature, this nurturing mother offers her children sustenance and support. She is a goddess of fertility and abundance, whose mountainlike body is covered in flowering plants. This painting was once the central panel of five, with the flanking wings depicting the four seasons personified as children. Léon Frédéric's realistic, detailed depiction of a mythological image shows the spirit of symbolism in its transformation of a familiar type—the nurturing mother—into a sensual and energetic vision. [source]