You might be surprised to know who the figure at left is: Mary Magdalene as depicted in the Gnostic tradition. She is both penitent (celestial) and alluring (animal), and she holds the power of life in (or near) her right hand and death in the left. At right is Pandora--reclining on a skull. And there are many more examples like these in Western art. Notice in Pandora's case that her minimal garments serve to emphasize her sexual organs (a common use of clothing in art). Combined with the skull, the painting emphasizes a life/birth-death polarity.

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