Vertumnus and Pomona

The artwork

Vasari gave it its title, but scholars still wonder who the gods seated on either side of this round window, in the Medici villa at Poggio a Caiano, really are. It comes printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• A lunette, that is a half-moon fresco, with putti forming a garland around a round window.
• Its long, low shape works well above a sofa or a headboard.
• A gift for anyone who loves ancient myths and Tuscan villas.

Pontormo frescoed the lunette between 1519 and 1521 in the villa's great hall, for the Medici, the family of Pope Leo X.

Vasari called it Vertumnus and Pomona, after the god of the seasons and the nymph of fruit in Ovid's Metamorphoses. In the myth he disguises himself as an old woman to get close to her; here Vertumnus is an old man with a basket, and Pomona holds a sickle. Some scholars note that Vasari's description does not really match the fresco, and see in it Bacchus and Ceres with the four seasons.

The fresco is still in place, in the villa near Prato that has belonged to the State since 1914. The shop also has a pen study by Pontormo for this lunette.

In a kitchen or a country house, it brings a corner of a Medici villa to your walls. It will delight anyone who tends a vegetable garden or an orchard.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 40 x 60 cm (15.7 x 23.6 in)
Framed size: 42 x 62 cm (16.5 x 24.4 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with a gold fillet, handmade, with glass