Venice

A woman's face emerges at the center of a densely patterned composition: green trellises woven with pink roses arch overhead, stylized harlequin figures and long-beaked birds occupy the corners, small hanging lanterns glint among the foliage, and she holds a blue carnival mask in her hands. At the lower edges, pink Venetian palazzos with pointed-arch windows ground the fantasy in a recognizable place.

Flat, jewel-toned triangles and diamonds of blue, green, and gold interlock with the more naturalistically painted face, producing a mosaic or stained-glass effect. Scattered white flecks and radiating lines suggest fireworks or starlight across the gilded ground; the treatment is richly ornamental, symbolic, and dreamlike.