Half a circle and a window - the fresco of Vertumnus and Pomona by Jacopo Pontormo at Poggio a Caiano, circa 1519-21

 

The country villa of Poggio a Caiano is located in the comune of the same name in Tuscany. Also called Ambra, it is one of the most famous Medici villas and perhaps the best example of architecture commissioned by Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, il Magnifico. The villa, located in the middle of a hilltop at the foot of the Montalbano mountains, was designed by Giuliano da Sangallo. Construction began in 1485, with work continuing for decades, long past the deaths of Lorenzo de' Medici and his architect. And its decoration, adaptations, restorations would continue for centuries. Today, state owned, it remains a priceless record of Renaissance art and architecture.

The salone. 

The decoration of the salone was only begun after 1513, in the time of Lorenzo's son Giovanni, by then Pope Leo X. The frescoes were created by the greatest Florentine masters of the time; along with Pontormo, they included Andrea del Sarto and Franciabigio. (They were finally completed some fifty years later by Alessandro Allori.) Pontormo's lunette has traditionally been described as representing the classical myth of Vertumnus and Pomona, a tale taken from Ovid's Metamorphosis. The identification goes back to Vasari, who reported that Pontormo was asked to depict Vertumnus along with other figures. But Vasari's text does not give an actual description of the work. So it's possible that the fresco tells a different story; one theory is that it's a portrayal of Bacchus and Ceres with personifications of the Four Seasons.

Randomly XIV

Temptation, by Bernhard Österman, circa first quarter of the twentieth century.

Le Diable au corps, by German Lorca, 1949.

Dorothea Hannah, by James McIntosh Patrick, 1928.

Riverbank in Moonlight, by Charles-François Daubigny, 1875.

Unidentified Brazilian woman, by Revert Henrique Klumb, 1872 (?).

Aranjuez Garden, Arbor, II, by Santiago Rusiñol, 1907.

Pomegranates, by John Singer Sargent, 1908.

Portrait of a Halberdier (Francesco Guardi?), by Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci), circa 1528–1530.

Unknown.

Georgia Doble Sitwell, by William Acton, circa mid-1930s.

Carol Kane, unknown photographer, 1976.

Pier Maria III de' Rossi, conte di San Secondo, by Parmigianino, circa 1535-38.

Polytès, fils de Priam, observant les mouvements des Grecs vers Troie, by Hippolyte Flandrin, 1835.

Unknown, 1934. Courtesy Ralf De Jonge.

Children's record cover, 1947.

Madame Élisabeth (? ), by Charles Emmanuel Leclercq, 1775 (?). In 1775, the King's sister was eleven....

Eugene Meyer, by the Athletic Model Guild, circa late 1940's - early 1950's. 

Unknown. Courtesy Ralf De Jonge.

Japanese women and child in Western-style dress, by Toyohara Chikanobu, 1889.

Self-portrait, by Miklós Barabás, 1841.

Untitled 3, (Ambrotype), by Jody Ake, 2005.

Exposition universelle de 1900 - Paris, Le Palais de l'électricité, unknown artist, circa 1900.

La Colère d'Achille, by François-Léon Bénouville, 1847. (Frankly, I think he looks more confused than "wrathful"!)

Countess Sofia Bobrinskaya, née Sheremeteva, by Hippolyte Robillard, 1863.

Unknown. Circa 1920s-30s.

Klostergarten (Monastery Garden), by Oswald Achenbach, circa second half of the nineteenth century. 

Pauline in Paris, by Sir James Gunn, 1939. Pauline was the artist's wife and frequent model.

Une étude de femme d'après nature or Portrait of Madame Soustras, by Marie-Denise Villers, 1802.

Unknown. Courtesy Stephen Rutledge.

Ferdinando de' Medici in Polish costume with a sabre, by Justus Sustermans, circa 1622.

The Saddler's Daughter, by George Spencer Watson, circa 1923-24 

Portal of a stairway tower, with a man descending the stairs (thought to depict the moment before the assassination of William the Silent
in the Prinsenhof, Delft, in 1584), attributed to Egbert Lievensz. van der Poel, 1640.

Thomas Hood, by unknown artist, circa 1832-34.

Advertisement for Cinzano Spumanti, by Plinio Codognato, 1933.

Russian gendarmes, 1890.

Unknown.

Ferdinand, Count von Werdenberg, by Samuel van Hoogstraten, 1652.

Eine Auferstehung, by Michael Triegel, 2006.

Unknown, circa 1910s. Courtesy Ralf De Jonge.

Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna with her daughter Maria, by Karl Briullov, 1830.

Unknown. Courtesy Ralf De Jonge.

La Contessa Malacrida, by Ettore Tito, 1926.

Unknown. Courtesy Stephen Rutledge.

Unknown noblewoman or courtier, by Jean-Baptiste Oudry, first half of the eighteenth century.

Johann Friedrich I, Elector of Saxony, called "Johann the Magnanimous", when a child, by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1509.

Unknown.

Cover for Vogue Magazine, by Helen Dryden, 1916.

Wien 1, Kärntner Ring, Eingang des Hotel Bristol: Dame und Offiziere, unknown photographer, 1917.