0912NOTPomona_Tengnagel

0912NOTPomonaVertumnus_Tengnagel

Gallery
Ovid Met. 14.623-771

Jan Tengnagel, "Vertumnus and Pomona," 1617, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam A.4699

Reid's classification between 0912Pomona and 1055Vertumnus, with lots of duplicate overlaps, may be sensible.

Two women in a garden, one older and cloaked, gesturing to a younger woman in red, who looks pensive

Vertumnus, a Roman god of vegetation, has disguised himself as an old crone so as to win the confidence of the lovely Pomona, also a vegetation goddess. Here she is the guardian of a well protected (virginal) garden. Perhaps her grip on the pruning hook suggests she does not quite yet trust the old woman's authenticity? Other treatments have her wielding the same tool more menacingly.

I am unsure whether I can identify any particular gain in this narrative. Rubens' is to me more evocative, especially considering it as a portrait of his young bride and family. If Tengnagel's Pomona is identifiable (i.e. part of his biography), the gain may be clear.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1400 – 1990’s, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University Press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.