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Francois Genevieve de Vallembras de Sombreval (1746). Jean-Marc Nattier (French, 1685-1766). Oil on canvas. Musée du Louvre.

Nattier revived the genre of the allegorical portrait, in which a living person is depicted as a Greco-Roman goddess or other mythological figure. Here, the sitter is shown as Erato, the Muse of Lyric and Love Poetry. Nattier’s graceful and charming portraits of court ladies in this mode were very fashionable, partly because he could beautify a sitter while also retaining her likeness.