The mythological portrait was one of the most sought-after specialties of Jean-Marc Nattier. Dubbed “the painter of beauty” by one of his contemporaries, Nattier flattered his sitters by showing them in guises of radiant goddesses. He also idealized his sitters’ features in accord with contemporary notions of female attractiveness, giving them flawless skin, oval faces, and full lips. Here Elizabeth Rigoley d’Ogny assumes the guise of Aurora, goddess of the dawn, who sits on a cloud and scatters flowers over the earth to announce the coming of day.