Cressida 

Edward John Poynter captured Cressida, a figure from Trojan legend, in paint on canvas. The partially drawn curtains around her frame her with ambiguity. Curtains can conceal or reveal, hinting at the duplicitous nature that Cressida embodies in her story. The motif of parted curtains echoes through time, from ancient Greek theatre, where they signaled scene changes and revelations, to Renaissance paintings, where they framed sacred figures. Think of Botticelli's "Birth of Venus", where a similar cloth separates our world from the divine. The curtain reappears time and again as a symbol of transition, secrecy, and the unveiling of truth. Here, the curtain pulled aside invites us into Cressida's internal world, where the tragedy of her choices unfolds. Her face suggests a moment of internal conflict, charged with an emotional intensity that transcends her specific tale. It is a recurring drama of human vulnerability and deception, played out on the stage of history.