Sunday, September 26, 2021

' Florinda ' is my kind of painting

 

No, it's not 'Florida', it's 'Florinda'.  And it's a painting about a legendary event.

It's in the collection of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (aka "The Met"), but according to the Web page about it, it isn't currently on display.   Can't imagine why. 

Here's the story: "This painting depicts an episode from the legend of Roderick, the last king of the Spanish Visigoths. After spying on his maids of honor to determine the fairest among them, the king chose Florinda (at center left), who became the object of his love. In revenge, Florinda's father called the Arabs into Spain and brought about the conquest. This painting, which was shown at the Salon of 1853, is a replica of a version of the same size given by Queen Victoria to Prince Albert in 1852."

I'll provide a small version here.  Go to the Web page, and you can really zoom in.









Some of those ladies are cute.  Especially Florinda.  Hopefully she was worth losing the kingdom, but we'd have to ask Roderick about that. 





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