Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional Search Ir al contenido principal

Navegación superior (EN)

About Us Support Become Friend Shop Tickets
Español
Visit Collection Exhibitions Activities Education Search
  • Visit
  • Collection
  • Exhibitions
  • Activities
  • Education

Thyssen - Navegación superior (EN)

About Us Support Become Friend Shop Tickets
Español
©
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Caesar van Everdingen

Vertumnus and Pomona

1637 - 1640
Oil on panel.
47.9 x 38.9 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
136
(
1983.19
)
ROOM 20
Level 2
Permanent Collection
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 13 15 16 17 18 22 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Recommended start of the visitClassical rooms
1 14th Century. Early Italian Painting 2 15th Century. German and Spanish Painting 3 15th Century. Early Netherlandish Painting 4 15th Century. Italian Painting 5 15th and 16th Centuries. Renaissance Portraiture 6 16th Century. Villahermosa Gallery 7 16th Century. Italian Painting 8 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 9 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 10 16th Century. Netherlandish Painting 11 Tiziano, Tintoretto, Bassano and  El Greco 12 17th Century. Caravaggio and Baroque Painting 13 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 14 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 15 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 16 18th Century. Italian Painting 17 18th Century. Italian Painting 18 18th Century. Italian Painting 19 Classical rooms 20 Classical rooms 21 Classical rooms 22 18th Century. Italian Painting 23 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 24 18th Century. French and English Painting 25 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Scenes of Daily Life and Interiors 26 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 27 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Portrait 28 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 29 19th Century. European Painting. Goya and Romanticism  
Brother of the landscape painter Allart van Everdingen, little is known regarding Everdingen’s training. He was active as a portraitist, working in a manner that recalls the influence of Bartholomeus van der Helst, but was particularly noted for his mythological, historical, allegorical and religious paintings and for half-length figures. The earliest known works by the artist are the portraits of his parents, Pieter Cornelisz. van Everdingen and Aechje Claesdr. Moer of 1636. Between 1641 and 1643 he is documented in Amersfoort and after 1648, in Haarlem. Together with other Dutch painters he was involved in the decoration of the Oranjezaal in The Hague, executing, among other works, the paintings of The Four Muses and Pegasus on Parnassus and an Allegory of the Birth of Frederick Henry, dated to around 1639‒40.

Vertumnus and Pomona appeared on the art market in 1915 when it was auctioned in Berlin. It was then with the Jacques Goudstikker gallery in Amsterdam and with Auslander & Wittgenstein in New York, from whom it was acquired by Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza in 1983. It was first discussed in the scholarly literature by Pigler in 1956.

Huys Janssen has dated the panel to between 1637 and 1640 at an early phase in Everdingen’s career. It depicts an episode from Book XIV of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The meeting between the two figures takes place in Pomona’s garden where she appears nude, seen from behind and holding the curved pruning knife that is one of her attributes. Seated beside her on the ground is Vertumnus with a staff, disguised as an old woman, while below Pomona’s feet, Everdingen has placed a fine still life of fruit. The Roman god Vertumnus, protector of fruit trees and responsible for the change of seasons, fell in love with the goddess Pomona, protector of fruit and flowers but immune to the delights of love, for which reason she enclosed her garden to prevent the entry of any man wishing to seduce her. In order to enter the garden and gain the love of Pomona, Vertumnus disguised himself as a woman. The scene is completed on the left with the bust of a satyr symbolising sexual desire.

As Janssen noted, this episode was popular with Haarlem artists who were inspired by a print by Jan Saenredam. According to Janssen, the figure of Pomona with her back to the viewer was used by Everdingen in other compositions including The Rape of Europa in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottowa, which dates from the same period as the present panel. Gaskell reproduced a drawing now in the Biblioteca Reale in Turin that depicts the same episode in a very similar way.

Mar Borobia
17th Century17th Century - Dutch paintingPaintingOilpanel
Listen
Download image Print page

Tours to find it

Still Life with Fruit Pie and various Objects. Bodegón con pastel de frutas y diversos objetos, 1634
Tours
Gastronomy

A stimulus for the palate and a feast for the eyes.

Portrait of Matthäus Schwarz. Retrato de Matthäus Schwarz, 1542
Tours
Wine Culture in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection

The different aspects of the history of wine embodied in various paintings.

Products and publications

Spanish & Sisters x Lacroix crochet earrings

Spanish & Sisters x Lacroix crochet earrings

48.00 €

Max Beckmann, figuras del exílio. Exhibition catalogue. Hardcover. Spanish.

Max Beckmann, figuras del exílio. Exhibition catalogue. Hardcover. Spanish.

38.00 € 9.50 €

Arte Americano en la Colección Thyssen (Exhibition catalogue. Spanish)

Arte Americano en la Colección Thyssen (Exhibition catalogue. Spanish)

39.00 € 25.00 €

Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Catalogue  V1 (Spanish)

Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Catalogue V1 (Spanish)

65.00 € 25.00 €

Visit online shop

More from the collection

Jan Lievens
Jan Lievens
Landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt
ca. 1640 - 1645
Govert Flinck
Govert Flinck
Portrait of a Man
1640
Willem Claesz. Heda
Willem Claesz. Heda
Still Life with Fruit Pie and various Objects
1634
Jan Josephsz. van Goyen
Jan Josephsz. van Goyen
River Landscape with Ferry Boat and Cottages
1634
  • Private and/or didactic use
  • Commercial use
Private and/or didactic use
Vertumnus and Pomona. Vertumno y Pomona, 1637-1640
Vertumnus and Pomona
Caesar van Everdingen

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Terms of Use

The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundación Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes, and other non-commercial uses.

Use for educational and research purposes is understood as the non-commercial or advertising use of images in presentations, conferences, school or university work, in classes at regulated education institutions, as well as in academic publications, with a circulation of less than 1,000 copies, provided that it is non-profit.

Non-commercial use is understood as the use of the images in a context where no profit, monetary or commercial, is generated, directly or indirectly.

Any use other than those indicated above will require the prior written authorization of the Fundación Any request for educational and research use or for non-commercial use (including academic publications), should be directed by email to the Museum Photo Library through the email address archivo.fotografico@museothyssen.org. This department manages the worldwide distribution of the images of the works of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and the management of their reproduction rights for those uses.

The user agrees to use the image of the website solely and exclusively for the purposes described above and in accordance with the following terms of use:

Terms of use

  • If the image is used for reproduction, the work must be reproduced in its entirety. The image may not be manipulated, deformed, modified, or altered in any way. In particular, no superposition (of images or texts) on the reproduction is allowed.
  • The reproduction of a detail or part of the work may only be made with the prior written authorization of the Fundación. In this case, the credit line must include the following mention: “detail”.
  • Any total or partial reproduction of the images authorized by the Fundación must be accompanied by the following mention: Author's name. Title, Date © Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
  • The user will send to the Museum Photo Library of the Fundación one (1) free copy of the edition, publication or reproduction to the following address: Archivo Fotográfico, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Paseo del Prado, 8 28014 Madrid, Spain.
Download image
Commercial use
Vertumnus and Pomona. Vertumno y Pomona, 1637-1640
Vertumnus and Pomona
Caesar van Everdingen

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Terms of Use

The Photographic Archive of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza offers sale and rental service of photographic material of all the works on its Permanent Collection.

To request images or permits for commercial use in academic or research publications, that is, catalogues of other institutions, monographs and other specialized publications, you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

To request images or permits for other commercial or advertising uses (general publications, merchandising, exhibitions, audio-visual works, web pages, etc.), you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

The Photo Library and the Museum's Commercial Archive manage the worldwide distribution of images of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza works, as well as their reproduction rights. The applicable rates are calculated based on the nature and proposed use of the images, as well as the availability of the requested image.

Requests for scans or new photographs will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Once approved, an additional fee will apply. Re-photographing a work will require a minimum of six weeks to complete.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the photographs set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from the author or copyright holder known to the Fundacion in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

Download image
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional

Navegación secundaria (EN)

  • #Thyssenmultimedia
  • Press
  • Corporate events
  • Tourism
  • Join our team
  • Newsletter
Instagram
Facebook
X
Youtube
TikTok
iVoox
LinkedIn

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza would like to thanks for the collaboration of:

Fundación Mutua Madrileña Master Card Comunidad de Madrid
©2025 Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum

Menú al pie (EN)

  • Legal terms and use of images
  • Public tenders
  • Transparency site
  • Accessibility and quality
  • Sustainability & 2030 Agenda
  • Contact
Ministry of Culture España es cultura | Spain is culture. The website promoting Spanish culture Paisaje de la Luz | Paseo del Prado y Buen Retiro. Paisaje de las Artes y las Ciencias
Certificación de Conformidad con el Esquema Nacional de Seguridad. Categoría Media. RD 311/2022