![Jacopo Pontormo 048](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Jacopo_Pontormo_048.jpg)
''Vertumnus and Pomona'' is a fresco decoration in the Medici country villa at
Poggio a Caiano
Poggio a Caiano is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Prato, Tuscany region Italy. The town, birthplace of Philip Mazzei, lies south of the provincial capital of Prato.
Sister towns
Poggio a Caiano has two sister cities:
* Charlottesvi ...
(near Montalbano), executed ''c.'' 1519-1521 by
Jacopo Pontormo
Jacopo Carucci (May 24, 1494 – January 2, 1557), usually known as ''Jacopo da Pontormo'', ''Jacopo Pontormo'', or simply Pontormo, was an Italian Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine School. His work represents a profound sty ...
.
The villa is set among orchards and gardens, and in summer, served as a retreat from the heat in Florence.
The fresco surrounds a
lunette
A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void.
A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...
, high in a barrel-vaulted central hall. The
allegorical
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...
figures over the doors and the facing fresco depicting Julius Caesar, begun by Pontormo’s mentor,
Andrea del Sarto
Andrea del Sarto (, , ; 16 July 1486 – 29 September 1530) was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism. He was known as an outstanding fresco decorator, painter of altar-pieces, ...
, were completed decades later by
Alessandro Allori
Alessandro di Cristofano di Lorenzo del Bronzino Allori (Florence, 31 May 153522 September 1607) was an Italian painter of the late Mannerist Florentine school.
Biography
In 1540, after the death of his father, Allori was brought up and trai ...
. Pontormo initially received the commission from
Ottaviano de' Medici
Ottaviano de' Medici (11 July 1484 – 28 May 1546) was an Italian politician. He was the ancestor of the Princes of Ottajano line of the Medici family.
From a minor branch of the Medici family, he gained prominence through his marriage to Franc ...
and
Cardinal Giulio de' Medici
Pope Clement VII ( la, Clemens VII; it, Clemente VII; born Giulio de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the ...
, the future
Clement VII
Pope Clement VII ( la, Clemens VII; it, Clemente VII; born Giulio de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the ...
, and Giovanni de’ Medici (later pope as
Leo X
Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521.
Born into the prominent political an ...
).
The painting depicts peasants, including a naked youth, picking fruit or lounging beneath trees in a walled framework. Putti garland the window. The stated theme is the classical myth of
Vertumnus
In Roman mythology, Vertumnus (; also Vortumnus or Vertimnus) is the god of seasons, change and plant growth, as well as gardens and fruit trees. He could change his form at will; using this power, according to Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' (xiv) ...
and
Pomona taken from a story in
Ovid's Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the w ...
. The myth is that of Pomona, a beautiful but aloof wood-nymph, shown with a sickle at right lower corner, who sheltered herself inside her orchard, dedicating herself to its cultivation while spurning all suitors. Vertumnus, either a demigod of seasons or a
satyr
In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, :wikt:σάτυρος, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, :wikt:Σειληνός, σειληνός ), is a male List of nature deities, nature spirit with ears ...
, becomes taken with the nymph's beauty, but she ignores and rebuffs all his advances to enter her realm and remains a maiden. The mutable Vertumnus gains access to the orchard disguised or transformed into an old woman (depicted as an old man with a basket, however, in this fresco). Once inside, the myth relates that the disguised Vertumnus convinces Pomona, by means of allusive stories, to "
carpe diem
is a Latin aphorism, usually translated "seize the day", taken from book 1 of the Roman poet Horace's work ''Odes'' (23 BC).
Translation
is the second-person singular present active imperative of '' carpō'' "pick or pluck" used by Horace t ...
" and choose the handsome youth Vertumnus, who finally reveals his true form.
One interpretation of this fresco is that the allegory delicately counterposes the turns in the myth using a mirror fashion in each hemi-lunette by depicting a contrast of the elder-faced Vertumnus with the rapt Pomona, the youth with a basket and a turning maiden, and finally, the naked man aloft on the fence picking fruit from the same tree from which, at a distance, the maiden trims a branch while clothed in a red dress that suggests arousal. This is an elaborately seductive interpretation for this fresco that was created for a family closely associated with the papacy.
The imagery is an apt choice for this rural farm, however. It lacks the usual melancholy of Pontormo's religious canvases, and thus, is unique among his works. In some ways, this painting is aberrant in the prevailing current of Florentine painting of its time. Florentine painting, if not portraiture, often was intellectual, academic, and focused on allegory,
mythology
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
, or religious themes.
Genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
topics and still life studies were rare for the high-minded Florentines. In addition, nearly all Italian painting until that time depicted indoor settings or included urban landscapes, and if not, the landscape was unmemorable
sfumato
Sfumato (, ) is a painting technique for softening the transition between colours, mimicking an area beyond what the human eye is focusing on, or the out-of-focus plane. It is one of the canonical painting modes of the Renaissance. Leonardo da V ...
dissipating in the distance.
The summer season evoked by the fruit and the reposing figures in the fresco is powerful as well as soothing. The theme of the relaxed near-genre scene gently suggests fertility.
References
External links
Gerbrand van den Eeckhout
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vertumnus And Pomona (Pontormo)
Fresco paintings in Tuscany
Paintings by Pontormo
Paintings based on Metamorphoses
1520s paintings