Spring

Rosalba Carriera's 1725 'Spring,' held in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, likely belongs to a four-seasons allegorical series — one of the most popular decorative schemes of the eighteenth century. Spring as a personification was conventionally depicted as a young woman with flowers, garlands, or a pastoral setting, her features fresh and her expression light. Such works were produced for collectors' cabinets and pleasure rooms, functioning as decorative ensembles that combined mythological learning with aesthetic pleasure. The Hermitage's acquisition of this work reflects the Russian imperial court's broad gathering of Western European decorative and fine art, with Venetian Rococo works among the most actively sought categories. Carriera's version of Spring would have been prized for its combination of technical brilliance and graceful subject matter.

The Spring allegory allowed Carriera to work in her most freely decorative mode: a young figure surrounded by flowers, bathed in warm light, the colour palette fresh and bright. She would use her most luminous yellows, pinks, and greens to evoke the season's characteristic palette, with the floral accessories rendered with botanical specificity.