 In her hair she wears myrtle, both a flower sacred to Venus and one worn by brides.In contrast, the woman on the right is nude except for a white cloth over her loins and a large red mantle worn over one shoulder.It was generally recognised by the 20th century that, somewhat contrary to a natural first impression, if the painting indeed represented figures along the lines of "Sacred and Profane Love", the clothed figure was "profane love", and the nude one "sacred love".