![Paulus Bor - The Disillusioned Medea (The Enchantress) [c.1640] by Gandalf's Gallery](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5506/9756190791_800409d4fa.jpg)
Paulus Bor - The Disillusioned Medea (The Enchantress) [c.1640], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.
The moody young woman seated before an altar and a statue of the goddess Diana is an enchantress, as her wand indicates. A similar figure, perhaps Pomona, leans on a garlanded altar in another canvas by Bor (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), which is generally considered to be a pendant to the present picture. The pair would date about 1640. Bor (Dutch, Amersfoort, c.1601 - Amersfoort, 1669) worked in Rome during the 1620s and by 1628 had returned to his native Amersfoort, near Utrecht. His eccentric style is a somewhat provincial but impressive response to the Caravaggesque effects introduced into Utrecht by Hendrick ter Brugghen and Gerard van Honthorst. This picture belonged to the Chigi family in Rome.
[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 155.6 x 112.4 cm]