Allegory of Spring and Summer

The work is one of a group of two bronze plates.
See also Inv. AP I 114

The two bronze plates represent two similar versions of the same subject; the second, which is more roughly worked, with little accuracy in the definition of the details and a few faults in the casting, is a copy of the first, but of considerably inferior quality.

The reliefs present two female figures elegantly dressed in draped classical robes. The figure just behind the other, her breast bare, holding a cloth laden with petals, has been identified as an allegory of Spring (or Flora). The first, holding some ripe ears of wheat in her left hand and, with her head turned back, stretching out her hand to take the flowers offered by her companion, represents Summer (or Ceres).

The first plate is known to have a companion piece, not kept in Vicenza, with the image of the allegories of Autumn and Winter.

The plates in relief, of which numerous copies were made, were probably produced in the early seventeenth century by a French workshop.