Das Marmorbild

Marmorbild, Das, a story by J. von Eichendorff, published in 1819 in the Frauentaschenbuch edited by F. de la Motte Fouqué. Florio travels to Lucca where he is attracted to Bianca, a charming young woman. He is enticed from her by a beautiful Venus-like figure, an apparition, which seems from time to time to turn into a statue. Florio tears himself away from this seductress, whereupon she turns definitively to stone and her palace crumbles into ruin. He returns to Bianca, thus, in the symbolism of the story, rejecting pagan beauty and pagan morals for the Christian ideal.