Ceres and Proserpina

Ceres is depicted in a half-length portrait with an elaborate crown of wheat and wind-swept hair, cradling a cornucopia filled with apples, pears, and grain. To her left, a young child gazes upward while gripping a reaping hook, set against a distant landscape under a radiating sun. The composition is held within an oval frame decorated with winged serpents and bundles of fruit in the corners.

Ceres represents the civilizing transition from a primitive state of nature—symbolized by the 'loathed oak and acorn' mentioned in the inscription—to the era of agriculture and settled society. In the Western esoteric tradition, Ceres and the Eleusinian Mysteries were viewed as symbols of the soul's descent into matter and its eventual cultivation through sacred knowledge.