This drawing depicts the story of the nymphs Florilla and Melissa, twin daughters of Heaven and the Earth, lovers of music (Florilla) and flowers (Melissa), the honeymaker. The young nymphs were respectively turned into flowers and a swarm of bees to punish Apollo, who had fallen in love with Melissa -shown here fainting in the act of metamorphosis- to such a degree that he was neglecting his job of towing the chariot of the Sun, thereby throwing the world into darkness. Apollo and the Muses, di