Flore Saisie Par L’amour Or L’innocence En Danger 1851

Narcisse-Virgilio Diaz painted Flore Saisie Par L’amour Or L’innocence En Danger, or Flora Seized by Love, in France sometime in the mid-19th century. It’s a painting that encapsulates the ambivalent attitude to the female body that was prevalent in Parisian society at the time. The female nude was a staple in the annual Salons, yet, the official art world was highly restrictive when it came to representing women. The acceptable female nude was allegorical or mythological, preferably both. Here, Diaz shows the goddess Flora, her semi-nudity justified by her status, and the two cherubs, one pulling at her dress, the other eyeing her with a mixture of curiosity and longing, add an erotic charge. By giving the painting a long title that equivocates between Love and lost innocence, Diaz is playing with the moral and artistic values of his time. To properly understand his artistic choices, we might research the aesthetic debates of the era and the complex social norms that dictated how women were represented.