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Other Frescoes

Other Frescoes

Vertumnus and Pomona

c.1760-1790

Hand-coloured etching | RCIN 854057

A hand-coloured print by Francesco Saverio Gonzales of the fresco of Vertumnus and Pomona in Raphael's Villa, the so-called Casino Raffaello, a small summer-house, also known as the Casino Olgiati, which stood in the Galoppatoio area of the present-day Borghese Park. This building was destroyed in the siege of Rome in 1849 and Ruland (1876) notes that: "the three principal frescoes have been removed before" and these are now in the Galleria Borghese. 

The identification of Raphael as the painter of this fresco, the signature of the printmaker and a title are below the image. Ruland (1876) states that: "the composition and work [are] of a pupil of Raphael". According to Passavant, the subject of this fresco has been variously identified as Vertumnus and Pomona, the Levee of Alexander and Roxane, the Feast of Flora and Venus and Adonis.

In the life of Raphael written by Quatremere de Quincy and translated into Italian by Francesco Longhena in 1829, it is noted that seven prints after the paintings of this Villa were made by Francesco Saverio Gonzales, five of which are in the Royal Collection (see RCINs 854035.a-d and 854037). Longhena also writes that in the Villa there was a portrait of La Fornarina, the fresco of the Marriage of Alexander and Roxana, representations of the Vices with arrows and the Sacrifice of Flora on the ceiling.
  • Added to the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-1876)