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Nicolaes Maes , Dutch, 1634-1693

Title

Vertumnus and Pomona

Date1673

MediumOil on wood panel

Dimensions

48.5 x 60.4 cm

Signedlower right: N. Maes, 1673

Credit LinePurchased, 1894

Object numberNGI.347

Label TextBorn in Dordrecht, Maes trained with Rembrandt in Amsterdam in the late 1640s-early 1650s. After returning to his hometown, he depicted biblical and mythological subjects before becoming a successful painter of genre scenes and portraits. The subject is taken from Ovid's Metamorpheses, which tells the story of Vertumnus, the god of seasons, who tried to woo the gardender Pomona in various disguises - his final attempt was in the form of an old woman. When he recounted to her the virtues of marriage and then revealed his true form, Pomona fell for the god. The subject enjoyed great popularity among seventeenth-century Dutch painters.