Statue of Ceres

Rubens spent eight years in Italy before returning north, and in Rome he studied the antique sculpture that Roman families kept in their gardens. In the Borghese collection he saw a Hellenistic figure of Ceres, the goddess of grain and the fruitfulness of the earth. Back in Antwerp he turned that memory into this small panel, where the goddess stands as a stone statue in a niche while plump children reach up to hang garlands on her. Rubens did not paint the fruit himself. The heavy swag of grapes, apples and wheat was the work of his friend Frans Snyders, who specialised in exactly this kind of abundance. Between them they made a carved goddess look like the source of a real harvest.