Vertumnus1.0062a_BoucherGobelins

Vertumnus1.0062a_BoucherGobelins

Metropolitan Museum of Art
OGCMA s.v. "Vertumnus"
OGCMA s.v. "Pomona"

François Boucher, 1703-1770, "Vertumnus and Pomona from a set of Scenes from Operas," 1758-76, woll and silk tapestry, 124 1/2 x 81 1/2 in. New York City, Metropolitan Museum of Art, obj. no. 14.40.708, Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913.

Boucher captures the moment in Ovid's original narrative when the Italic orchard god disguised as a crone woos Pomona in her lush orchard. This tapestry is derived from Boucher's model in San Francisco (1.0062). An opera performed at Versailles in 1749 had featured Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV's mistress, in the role of Pomona.

Bibliography:

The image at right is derived from the Metropolitan Museum's website.

Baroque tapestry with an elderly man and young woman in a garden, with putti and a statue above

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.