Monna Pomona

Monna Pomona (1864) at Tate is one of Rossetti's series of Italian-titled symbolic women — Monna Vanna, Monna Rosa, Monna Pomona — each identified with a particular natural attribute. Pomona is the Roman goddess of fruit and orchards, and her apple or pomegranate carries the long tradition of fruit as a vehicle for erotic, seasonal, and symbolic meaning. The Italian title gives classical weight to what is fundamentally a contemporary idealized female portrait; Rossetti's models from this period — particularly Alexa Wilding — lent their faces to these mythological designations. The oil on canvas format at 1864 marks the beginning of Rossetti's mature large-format symbolic figure period, when he had moved beyond the small panels and watercolors of the late 1850s and was producing works at a scale suited to statement collecting.

The large canvas format allows Rossetti to develop the figure at near-life scale, making the physical presence of the model immediately felt. The warm apple-green and rose tones associated with Pomona's domain give this work a characteristically warm, saturated coloristic identity.