Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Vertumnus.
The gallery
Rudolf II as Vertumnus
Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1591
Arcimboldo's Skokloster masterpiece: Emperor Rudolf II as a composite of fruit and vegetables — Vertumnus as the season-god emperor, the most famous face the Roman orchard god ever wore.
Vertumnus and Pomona
Jacopo Pontormo, 1519–1521
Pontormo's Poggio a Caiano fresco: Vertumnus among Medici orchard abundance — Ovid's shape-shifting wooer woven into villa propaganda.
Vertumnus and Pomona
Francesco Melzi, c. 1518–1522
Melzi's Berlin panel: Vertumnus in crone disguise wooing Pomona — Leonardo's pupil turning Metamorphoses 14 into Lombard grace.
Vertumnus and Pomona
Peter Paul Rubens, 1636
Rubens for the Torre de la Parada: Vertumnus sheds the old-woman mask before Pomona — Flemish flesh for the god of seasonal change.
Landscape with Vertumnus and Pomona
Abraham Bloemaert, c. 1620
Bloemaert nests the orchard courtship in a Dutch world landscape — Vertumnus persuading as Pomona listens. Yale University Art Gallery.