This detail from Botticelli’s Calumny of Apelles, shows the personification of Slander dragging Apelles by his hair and carrying a flaming torch in her left hand. The painting is dated to 1494.

An earlier painting by Botticelli, Pallas and the Centaur, c 1482, also depicts a female grabbing the head of a centaur by his hair. Instead of a flaming torch in her left hand she holds a halberd.

Are these similar actions meant to link the two paintings in some way?. Is there someone or a particular narrative that Botticelli has referred to in both works?