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Voici la Bonne-Déesse, l'Ideenne des montagnes
(Here is the Good Goddess, the Idaean mother of the mountains)

Plate 15 of 24

Redon's image of Cybele, known to the Romans as the Good Goddess, draws very little from Flaubert's rich text. Cybele personified earthly abundance, and was a goddess of mountains (where she was born), nature, and animals. Cybele's strong frame is depicted against the mountains over which she presides. Her unusually angled pose reflects the angularity of the mountains and her hair-line follows their line. The forms of her body and clothes are interlocked with those of the rocks, and all focus is on the rays of light radiating from her head, seemingly symbolising the fertility of the earth.

P.328-1949

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