This was the last painting that I finished in my old studio space before having to pack up and move. I finally had time to download these photos and wanted to show some detail shots of my new painting, The Rise & Fall of Proserpina. A fitting time for this painting, as the seasons are changing – it still feels a bit like summer here in Vancouver with gorgeous sunny days, but it’s cooler and gets dark earlier…which leads me to a bit of an introduction to the story of Proserpina.
From my an early age, I was really interested in Greek myths. I think it had to do with all the books my mom bought me when I was younger, lots of fables and fairytales from all different cultures. So when it came to learning about Greek myths in school, I really loved all the stories and went on to look up lots of stories in the library (before there was internet!). One of the stories that I was always intrigued by was the story of Persephone…who is the Greek version of Proserpina, the ancient Greek goddess whose story was based on the changing of the seasons.
Proserpina was the daughter of Ceres, goddess of agriculture and crops, and Jupiter, the god of sky and thunder. While Proserpina was collecting flowers, she was abducted by Pluto, the God of the Underworld, who forced her to marry him and live with him, thereby making her the Queen of the Underworld. Her mother Ceres, in the meantime, searched in vain for her daughter, and in her anguish, she made the world cold and barren.
Jupiter in turn convinced Pluto to return Proserpina to her mother, but the daughter had eaten from the pomegranate, which was the food of the dead, and therefore she could not return to the world of the living. To appease both Pluto and Ceres, Proserpina had to spend six months with her mother, which became spring and summer, and return to be with Pluto for the latter six months of the year, which became autumn and winter.
The story of Proserpina has also been read as a tale of life-death-rebirth and has been represented throughout art history, but perhaps the most famous is the painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti:
