The enigmatic setting suggests many things. For many years scholars believed that the woman's ability to float on water indicated divinity. Subsequent restorations rebvealed a detail previously unseen: the baby cart in the upper right-hand area. It is now believed that this represents a major goddess who misplaced a god through her own vanity and inattention, and that the vast empty space in the center of the work - surely a curious choice for any painter skilled in composition - represents the void in the world created by the baby-god's loss.