Vertumnus and Pomona

Here, Vertumnus, the god of gardens, masquerades as an old woman to approach Pomona, the chaste goddess of orchards. Domenico Fetti depicted the moment before Vertumnus throws off his disguise and Pomona falls in love with him. Like that of another small painting in this case, the story is drawn from the Metamorphoses by the ancient Roman poet Ovid, a very popular text in the 17th century.