The Peri (2002)
“All human beings must in beauty yield
To you, a Peri I have ne’er beheld” (Saadi)
Unique spirits of Persian origin, Peris can be seen as benign fallen angels or as holy faeries, whose goal is to regain Paradise through good deeds. They subsist entirely on the perfume of flowers.
Serene and safe, protected by guardian Hands, this Peri, Amìr, basks in mystic rapture as her partly-visible sisters converge about her. Amìr is partly unclothed, emblematic of her greater progress toward Paradise– her radiant form revealed, mirrors the unveiling of the soul to Truth, which in turn evokes the abode of all Virtues.
(A certain homage to imaginal painters of the fin-de-siècle, especially Gustave Moreau, for whom the Peri appears frequently, is intended in this image.)