Decoration of the Villa Medici, Poggio a Caiano (1519-1521)

Pontormo took part in the decoration of the salone of the Medicean Villa of Poggio a Caiano, a country villa at the foot of Montalbano much favoured by Lorenzo il Magnifico. He represented the classical myth of Vertumnus and Pomona on a lunette.

The theme of the lunette fresco by Pontormo is traditionally described as Vertumnus and Pomona, the pictorial representation of the classical myth taken from a story in Ovid's Metamorphosis. This goes back to Vasari, who reported that Pontormo was asked to depict Vertumnus and some figures.

However. Vasari's text is not a description of this fresco. A possible explanation of the subject could be that the lunette represents the gods Liber (Bacchus) and Ceres, and personifications of the Four Seasons.