Vertumnus and Pomona 1676

Curator: Before us is “Vertumnus and Pomona,” a 1676 engraving by Thomas Lefebure, now residing at the Metropolitan Museum. The grayscale drawing illustrates Ovid’s tale of the changing seasons. Editor: It strikes me as theatrical, almost staged. The way the light catches Pomona’s robes juxtaposed with the shadowy figure approaching... it's quite dramatic, wouldn't you agree? Curator: Indeed. Lefebure's skillful use of line weight generates precisely that tension. Observe the contrast between the solid, architectonic forms and the fluidity of Pomona’s drapery, a visual push and pull between order and chaos. Semiotically, we might interpret this as… Editor: I see the allegorical dance playing out—youth and beauty confronted by the guise of age and deception. Her offering of fruit… it’s loaded, a peace offering perhaps or a symbolic gateway into vulnerability. Curator: Yes, the inclusion of those symbols ties directly back to the tale, a reminder that identities, much like the seasons, are changeable constructs. Look how the columns frame them, placing figures against the landscape, like a story literally etched into the design of life. Editor: Exactly! And isn't the metamorphosis of Vertumnus the entire point? A reminder that love assumes many forms and wears many faces. One wonders how contemporary audiences absorbed that. The engraving is almost an artifact of cultural longing and preservation of classical myths. Curator: Preservations of classical thought and the careful arrangement of space generate symbolic weight, no question, but to engage Lefebure too deeply through strictly Iconographic parameters threatens the loss of sight in terms of his composition's sheer architectural design. Editor: I suppose in the end, the power resides in its capacity to still ask questions of the self, and the myths and structures that define identity. Curator: Nicely put. The way those graphic qualities blend creates, for me, such resonance that it feels simultaneously ancient and somehow urgent.