Pandora was an exquisitely beautiful woman who was fashioned from clay by Vulcan and sent to earth by Jupiter. When curiosity made her open the mysterious box given to her by Jupiter, she released all the evils that have plagued mankind since then, thereby bringing the Golden Age to an end. There is little in Redon's picture to suggest Pandora's story. Rather, the delicately drawn figure stands amidst a profusion of flowers, clutching what may be the still-unopened box. This picture was probably painted about 1910, during a period when the artist did a number of female nudes in the guise of mythological heroines.

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