Focus on Flora (Francesco Melzi) and explore the Analysis.
Flora was painted in the style typical of the Leonardeschi, utilizing Leonardo da Vinci's  female facial type with downcast eyes, Leonardo's sfumato technique, and displaying Leonardo's penchant for careful observation of plants and hair. In the composition, Flora is seated in a grotto, surrounded by ferns and ivy. She wears the costume of an ancient Roman, with a white stola embroidered in gold and with a blue palla thrown over one shoulder. In her lap are white jasmines, and in her left hand she holds a spray of columbine that formerly gave the painting its title.The plants surrounding Flora held symbolic meaning for 16th and 17th century viewers. For example, the columbine, also known as aquilegia, are a symbol of fertility. Alongside Flora's exposed breast, the columbine emphasizes her role as a 'mother of flowers.' The jasmine in her proper right hand are symbolic of purity. The anemones in the folds of her palla in the lower left of the image represent rebirth. In ancient Greece, anemones were also the flower of the wind; these flowers thus also reference how Flora was married to Zephyrus, god of the West Wind. The ivy in the upper right represents eternity, and the fern in the upper left reflects the solitude of the grotto.
Leonardo da Vinci stola Leonardo da Vinci's Zephyrus Leonardeschi palla Flora jasmine columbine sfumato West Wind