The title was chosen because (a) it's an accurate depiction of the image and (b) if I use the more obvious form of the title, it's going to be lumped in with a certain form of X rated cinema in all search results.

It was time for us to make our way from the Piazza Santa Croce to the Uffizi Galleries, which is south toward the river and to the west. We started out heading south west down the Via dei Benci. Not so very far along we encountered a crystal and glass store on the right. Two of us wanted to go in, the other two, including me, waited outside. As waited there I noticed that there were frescoes on the front wall of the opposite building. I don't know how old the building is or how old the frescoes are, much less who did them.

However this one stood out. A short-haired, large bosomed, mostly naked woman lies on a bed as gold coins are tossed on her. By whom? I originally said that I couldn't tell. Why? I originally said that I had zero clues. An older woman at the foot of the bed gathers the coins into a basket.

I don't recall whether I remembered the story at the time that I took the photo (I think I may have, actually), but embarrassingly I certainly didn't when I wrote the original drafts of this description 4 years later. One comment about the photo on my PBase gallery raised the question of whether she was a lady of the night, which caused me to ponder "Hmm, I don't think so. The source of the gold is more likely to be... " {slaps hand to head} "OF BLOODY COURSE!"

Here's the story from classical mythology. King Acrisius of Argos (a city in the Peloponnese region of Greece) had a daughter. (Two, by some accounts.) He asked the Oracle if he would ever have a son. The Oracle told him that he would not, but that his daughter Danaë would have a son, and that the son would kill King Acrisius.

"We'll see about that", said King Acrisius, who locked his daughter in a luxurious cell which may have been underground or may have been in a tower, depending on who is telling the tale. Either way, there was still a skylight for air and light.

What happened? Zeus, the king of the gods who couldn't keep his zipper done up (not that they had zippers in those days, but go with me here) is what happened. If you know the ancient legends, as soon as he saw a woman to whom he took a fancy, he'd turn into a swan, or a bull, or anything really to have his way with her.

He spotted Danaë, liked what he saw, but since she was in a tower with a skylight his impregnation method of choice was to shower gold on her.

Nine months later she gave birth to the Greek hero Perseus; he who would go on to slay the Gorgon named Medusa, the one with snakes for hair. Acrisius didn't want to hack off Zeus by killing them both, so they were exiled.

What happened with the prophecy? Many years later Perseus was, purely by chance, at some athletic games where an aged Acrisius also found himself. Perseus accidentally struck him in the head with either a javelin or a discus, again depending on the source. Never question the Oracle.

And the old woman collecting the gold? A servant like that has been depicted in a number of renaissance paintings, including but not limited to those by Titian. (Though it doesn't explain who the guy (I think it's a guy) behind her is supposed to be given that Acrisius' intention was to keep Danaë away from all men.)

Sometimes the maid is replaced by cupid, sometimes no second person appears at all. So my question... where do I sign up to stand in for the old maid?

Because when you travel to Italia from Australia, gathering up a shower of gold would be a very useful thing to happen.