Vertumnus
by BAROIS, François, Marble, height 292 cm
The orchard god, Vertumnus, husband of the goddess of fruit, Pomona, tested his wife’s fidelity by putting on the mask of an old woman, the attribute he holds here in his right hand.
The statue is a terminal figure probably made for the gardens at Versailles, but placed in the Magasin des Antiques du Roi, from where it was taken in 1722 to decorate the west pond of the Tuileries gardens. Replaced by a cast in 1993.