The Siren (Green Abyss)

Giulio Aristide Sartorio was an Italian painter and film director from Rome. The Mermaid was painted by him after his first visit to London and strongly reflects the influence of English Pre-Raphaelite painting. The theme of the mermaid was common in mythological painting and among the Pre-Raphaelites. Sartorio’s work was mostly modelled on "The Depths of the Sea", by Edward Burne-Jones, from which he borrowed the idea of the beguiling mermaid who lures her victim to the depths of the sea. 

The composition, with a deep horizontal cut, is built around the figure of a sinuous mermaid with long red hair and pale skin, who encircles the body of the young fisherman as he leans out of the boat. Some skulls, transparently visible on the seabed behind the woman, suggest the fate that will befall the young victim in the arms of the woman.