Vertumnus and Pomona

Melzi executed the work firmly in the style of the Leonardeschi, employing Leonardo da Vinci's sfumato technique to render flesh and fabric with a polished, almost invisible brushwork and soft shadows. The figure of Pomona directly borrows Leonardo's female facial type, characterized by downcast eyes and a tight, subtle smile. The composition relies heavily on known Leonardo works from before 1513. The color scheme, blending warm oranges and pinks with cool blues and greens, mirrors Leonardo's Virgin and Child with Saint Anne at the Louvre. The background of distant mountains, rocky crags, and an arched bridge on the left derives from the Mona Lisa, while Pomona's seated pose closely relates to the Virgin Mary in Leonardo's Burlington House Cartoon. The painting also reflects Leonardo's precise observation of botany, with dense vegetation and small blue flowers filling the foreground under an even light.

The painting's early history remains obscure before the eighteenth century, when it entered the collection of the Duke of Saint-Simon in Paris. By 1771, it had entered the collection of Frederick the Great at Sanssouci, where it was catalogued as a work by Leonardo da Vinci. In 1820, the Gemäldegalerie of the Berlin State Museums purchased the painting from a seller named von Hurt, at which time it was attributed to Salaì. The painting remained in the Gemäldegalerie's collection, eventually receiving the accession number 222. Remnants of Melzi's signature, surviving as the Greek letters S and H on a rock near Vertumnus's foot, were uncovered during a 1995 examination. These remnants align with early descriptions noting the presence of a signature until at least the eighteenth century, which was likely removed to facilitate selling the work as an autograph Leonardo.

Francesco Melzi met Leonardo da Vinci as a young man and became his devoted pupil and companion, traveling with him to Rome in 1513 and to the court of François I in France before 1517, ultimately receiving Leonardo's artistic estate upon the master's death in 1519 at Chateau Cloux. Despite this close relationship, the attribution of Vertumnus and Pomona to Melzi has been debated. Pierre-Jean Mariette was the first to attribute it to Melzi, followed by Giovanni Morelli in 1877. Wilhelm von Bode confirmed the attribution in 1905, linking it stylistically to Melzi's Flora. Marion Wilcox argued in 1919 that Melzi was the sole plausible author, as the alternative, Giampietrino, lacked the necessary distinction. Wilhelm Suida concurred in 1929 based on stylistic ties to Leonardo. Detractors, however, including Georg Hirth and Richard Muther in 1889, and Rodman Henry in 1959, argued that Melzi was merely a dilettante, noting the absence of sixteenth-century evidence that he was a practicing painter and pointing out that Leonardo never mentioned Melzi as an artist. The 1995 discovery of Melzi's signature provided physical evidence supporting the traditional attribution.

The confusion over the painting's authorship highlights its historical reception as a work of exceptional quality, easily mistaken for an autograph Leonardo. The deliberate removal of Melzi's signature to pass the painting off as Leonardo's underscores the economic and cultural premiums placed on Leonardo's name, which overshadowed his followers. The eventual identification and physical evidence of Melzi's signature re-centered the work within the oeuvre of the Leonardeschi, helping to define Melzi not merely as a custodian of Leonardo's estate but as a significant practicing artist in his own right. The painting remains a critical reference point for understanding how Leonardo's compositional motifs and techniques were disseminated and adapted by his closest circle.