The Empire of Flora

Poussin painted The Empire of Flora around 1631, one of his most exuberant early mythological celebrations depicting the goddess of spring presiding over a garden where the flowers she governs — each identified as a transformed mortal from Ovid's Fasti — disport in joyful dance. The composition is crowded with figures — Ajax, Narcissus, Hyacinthus, Clytie, Crocus, Smilax, and Adonis each associated with their flower — in a festive assembly organized around the central figure of Flora. Poussin's early Roman mythologies show his full engagement with the Venetian tradition of festive outdoor scenes before his mature style imposed the greater austerity and classical discipline that marks his paintings from the late 1630s onward.

The composition arranges the mythological figures in a rhythmic procession around the central Flora, with the warm, golden palette and lush vegetation reflecting Poussin's early, more sensuous manner before his turn to austere classicism.