The Signs of the Zodiac

He immediately grasped the exceptional interest of these canvases "with a ceiling perspective" and recommended to buy them for the Palais de Luxembourg.

[3] The twelve canvases were mounted on the vault of the East Gallery, which at the time housed the museum of painting open to the public.

[3] The 12 works were marouflaged on the ceiling of the East Gallery and in the center was added a painting of Aurora by Antoine-François Callet.

In the other hand she holds a balance, a reference to the return of the equality of days and nights at the time of the autumnal equinox on 22 September.

The scorpion in the border alludes to the malignity of the diseases caused by the humid winds, charged with dangerous vapors, which are felt in this month.

[2] Venus and her son Cupid armed with his bow, carried by fish, are moving across the waters that the winds are agitating with violence.

[2] Mars, armed from head to toe, holding his sword in one hand, shaking the torch of war in the other, descends from the top of the rocks.

The goddess of love Venus and the god of desire Cupid symbolize that May is the mating season when the entire natural world is submitted to them.

The two children represent the twins Castor and Pollux who, according to the ancient mythology, were changed into the constellation Gemini.

When the sun enters this sign, the heat is doubled, the days become longer and the grass of the meadows starts to grow fast.

In the end, after many complaints, from the stars in the sky to the earth itself, Zeus strikes Phaethon with one of his lightning bolts, killing him instantly.

[2] Ceres is sitting in her chariot pulled by snakes, her head crowned with ears of corn while she holds a sickle in one hand and a sheaf of wheat in the other,.

Ceres, goddess of the harvest, benefactress of the earth, returns to Mount Olympus after she has distributed all her gifts and completed the cycle of the year.