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Henrique Bernardelli - Model at Rest (ca. 1890)

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Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (Spanish, 1863-1923) Messalina in the Arms of the Gladiator, 1886

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Henrique Bernardelli (1857-1936): Messalina (from 1878 until 1886)

Location: Museu Nacional de Belas Artes (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Maybe, because you liked "I, Claudius", you have read "Claudius, the God: and his wife Messalina" by Robert Graves as well? "Fictionary", but probably as close as it gets. Great books.

After the death of Messalina the Senate of Rome ordered a damnatio memoriae. "Theoretically the sentence of damnatio memoriae was supposed to erase all mention of the offender from the public sphere. The person's name was gouged from inscriptions and even from coinage. Sculptures might be smashed or at the very least would be dismounted and stored away out of sight." (Wiki)

I like to think that because of that my copy of the second Claudius novel has only "Claudius the God" on its cover. Messalina is dead, damnatio memoriae is not.

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Messalina by James Elliott Bama

Roman Empress, the third wife of Claudius

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The Night Heron -- Lionel Lindsay

The Night Heron, 1935 by Lionel Lindsay (1874-1961)

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Lionel Lindsay. The Dancer, 1924.

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Lionel Lindsay - The clipped wing (1931)

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Remedios Varo

Caza Nocturna. 1958

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The Sorceress by John William Waterhouse (1911)

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Frank Street - A Gentleman’s Club (1917)

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Dancers, 1921 by Frank Street (American, 1893-1944)

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‘Semiramis’ by Demétre Chiparus, 1928

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Study for an illustration for Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, a commission from the magazine Signature, 1936 by Evelyn Dunbar