The Vindicated Maid - Fragonard

Fragonard here takes some liberties with La Fontaine's tale, more faithfully represented in Cochin's drawing. The neighbor spying on the master and his maid is barely sketched in completely to the right, behind a balustrade, Fragonard insisting instead on the intimacy of the lovemaking, wrapped as if in a bower of foliage. The scene is captured earlier than in Cochin, not when the surprised maid drops her bouquet of flowers, but when the lovemaking is well advanced. There's no trace of flowers being spilled here, as the young woman regains the upper hand and the initiative.