Nymphs Abducting Hylas

This Roman opus sectile panel (early 4th c.) shows one of the nymphs who seizes Hylas, her body modeled in boldly colored marble—pink flesh tones, deep blue drapery, and bright yellow leggings. Her turned head and outstretched arm capture the moment of enticement, while the leafy green background evokes the spring where the myth unfolds. In the story, the water nymphs fall in love with Hylas’s beauty and draw him into their world forever—an image of desire, enchantment, and the peril of the natural divine.