05.03.2018-07.27.2018
Flemish fables
Paintings from 16th and 17th century northern schools
Based in Geneva's Old Town for the past seven years, and in Monaco for nearly a year now, the gallery is celebrating Art en Vieille Ville this spring with a new collection of old masters.
'Flemish fables' will take you on a journey across the different genres in fashion in the Southern Netherlands. Among them, the Flemish landscape painter Abraham Govaerts, who belonged to the generation immediately following that of Jan ‘Velvet’ Brueghel. He was perhaps the pupil of this master or a fervent admirer. Dated 1620, this copper is a major work by Abraham Govaerts. Set in the Garden of Eden, the painter illustrates a mythological scene featuring Vertumnus and Pomona. According to the legend told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, Vertumnus, the god of orchards and wine, falls in love with Pomona, the delightful goddess of fruit. Distrustful of men, the beautiful goddess shuts herself away in her garden surrounded by greenery. To attract her attention and seduce her, Vertumnus successively assumes the appearance of a harvester, a reaper, a wine grower, a fisherman, a soldier and, finally, an old woman.
Image
ABRAHAM GOVAERTS, 1589 - Anvers - 1626
Vertumne et Pomone
Cuivre : 37,5 x 54 cm
Signé et daté A. GOVAERTS 1620