Attributed to Abraham Janssens Place Unknown circa 1575 - 1632 Antwerp

The subject is taken from Ovid, Metamorphoses, 14, 623-697. Pomona was a beautiful Hamadryad (a wood nymph) who cared for nothing but looking after her orchard and for the plants that grew within it. She had no care for pursuits of the heart and the flesh and spurned her suitors by locking herself away behind the walls of her garden. Vertumnus, the god of the changing seasons and of gardens and fruit trees, fell passionately in love with her but she rejected his advances. So adopting different guises he tried to enter the garden, until finally he disguised himself as a old woman whereupon he gained entry and persuaded the young maiden to accept his suit before revealing himself to her in his true form.