Arion on a Sea Horse

The print file prints up to 11.3 x 7.3 in at 300 ppi — enough for a full 6 x 9 in front cover. Wider than a 6 x 9 cover: crop about 57% of the width, or use it as a wraparound across back and spine.

These paintings are from a series of eight works that Anatole Bartholoni commissioned the 29-year-old Bouguereau to create for his Paris home, decorated in the fashionable Pompeian-revival style. The paintings emulate ancient Roman designs. Crisp, cut-out forms are set against a gold background painted in imitation of mosaic. Arion was an ancient Greek poet who escaped death by riding away on the back of a sea creature who had been attracted by the poet's song. In the companion picture, a bacchante—a female worshipper of the wine god Bacchus—rides a panther, the god's symbolic animal.