Vertumnus and Pomona

In 1513 a Medici became pope as Leo X, and the family, back on top in Florence, set about decorating their country villa at Poggio a Caiano outside the city. The young Pontormo was given the grandest lunette in the main hall, high on the wall above a real window he had to paint around. He filled it with something surprisingly relaxed for so official a commission. Figures lounge along a low wall under leafy trees in the warm light of an idle afternoon, one youth sitting with his legs dangling over the edge. The theme is Ovid's tale of Vertumnus, a god of the seasons, courting Pomona, who watched over orchards. It is almost the only cheerful thing Pontormo ever painted, before he turned to the strained, anxious figures of his later years.