Saskia as Flora

Rembrandt returned to the subject of Saskia as the Roman goddess of spring for the second time in 1641, seven years after the first Flora of 1634 in the Hermitage. Where the earlier painting showed a young, radiant Saskia assuming the goddess's garland and pastoral staff with theatrical confidence, the 1641 version carries a different emotional weight. By this date Saskia van Uylenburgh had survived three infant deaths and was seriously ill with the tuberculosis that would kill her the following year. The rich floral costume and the goddess identity seem almost to strain against the sitter's fragile presence, and the wistful quality of her expression has moved generations of viewers who know the biographical context. Rembrandt's repeated use of Saskia as model was itself unusual in an era of strictly commercial portraiture — his willingness to mythologize his wife placed him in the tradition of Titian painting Laura Dianti as Flora, a lineage he almost certainly understood. The Dresden Gemäldegalerie acquired the painting as part of the Electoral collection, where it has remained one of the most personally poignant works in an otherwise encyclopedic Old Master holding.

The richly embroidered dress and floral headdress are painted with warm, luminous tones, while Saskia's gentle, slightly fatigued expression adds a poignant undertone to the mythological costume portrait.