The Empire of Flora

This unpublished copy of Poussin's early masterpiece, The Empire of Flora (Staatliche Gemäldegalerie, Dresden), seems to have been made for Louis Fagon (1680-1744) for the Château de Voré, which he purchased in 1719. Poussin's original -- which is an allegorical meeting of all the characters in Ovid's Metamorphoses who are transformed into flowers -- was commissioned in 1630 by the Sicilian nobleman Fabrizio Valguarnera, who paid for the picture with the profits from a diamond theft. The later provenance of that painting is unclear for the better part of the century that followed, but it may have belonged to the Prince de Condé at Chantilly; in the event, it was in Paris until 1722, when it was purchased by the baron Le Plat for Augustus II, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. It is likely that Fagon would have had the present copy made while the original was still available to be seen in Paris.