Vertumne et Pomone

Vertumnus and Pomona depicts the myth from Ovid's Metamorphoses in which the Roman god of seasons and change, unable to win the love of the orchard goddess Pomona, disguises himself as an old woman to gain access to her garden and tell her the story of Iphis and Anaxarete as a cautionary tale. When Pomona is finally moved, Vertumnus reveals his true form and she accepts him. The myth's themes of disguise, persuasion, and the transformation of reluctance into love made it popular with Baroque painters in Antwerp, where Ovid was a primary literary resource for mythological subjects. Frans Francken the Younger's 1612 version, at the Louvre, shows his early mature handling of classical mythology alongside his better-known religious and allegorical subjects. The disguised Vertumnus as an old woman allowed Francken to deploy his skill in contrasting female types — the disguised old man and the beautiful young goddess — within the charged setting of a productive orchard.

The composition focuses on the moment of narration — Vertumnus as old woman gesturing persuasively toward Pomona — requiring expressive differentiation between the two figures. Francken uses the orchard setting to introduce rich still-life elements: fruit, foliage, light through leaves, that display his technical range.