On parchment, en grisaille, a shaped oval in a gilt-metal mount and shaped to fit into the lid of a snuff box, width 6.8cm. Circa 1720.
The mythological tale of Vertumnus and Pomona appears in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Vertumnus, the god of the seasons, of fruit trees and gardens, disguised himself as an old woman in order to gain access to Pomona’s orchard, as a precursor to her seduction.
Klingstedt, a Swedish miniaturist, worked chiefly on vellum, en grisaille and seems to have specialised in painting scenes for tobacco boxes.
He worked mainly in France, where his work was much copied and where he received many commissions from royalty and the aristocracy.
