3-035-420 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Abduction of Proserpine, 1570. Pluto, god of the Underworld, seizes Proserpine, daughter of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture and fertility, and prepares to return with her to his kingdom on a chariot drawn by black horses. According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, Proserpine was forced to live in the underworld for four months of every year; her departure from earth marked the advent of winter, and her return brought the spring and summer.