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Plaque with Allegory of Summer
(Baroque Europe )
While harvesters work away under a cloudy sky, a nude woman with shafts of wheat in her hair lies in the foreground. She is Ceres, goddess of agricultural abundance, here also personifying summer. The surface is carefully worked to contrast the round softness of Ceres's body with the crisp, thin edges of the foliage and wheat.
The composition may have been inspired by an engraving by the Flemish engraver Jan Sadeler of Summer, one of The Four Seasons (1580-1584). This plaque was probably also part of such a series.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Geographies
Netherlands
(Place of Origin)
Germany (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 5 5/16 × W: 7 1/16 × D: 3/8 in. (13.5 × 18 × 1 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
53.65