Allegory of Stimulation

Lorenzo Lippi (Italian, 1606-1665) - Allegory of Stimulation, c.1640 (Oil on canvas. Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Angers) - - A young woman carries a theatrical mask and a pomegranate. The mask represents the simulated reality or falseness of the theater. The pomegranate refers to the Greek myth of Persephone eating pomegranate seeds, being forced to stay in the underworld and causing six months of barrenness on earth…