Given its numerous seeds (belived to be in an exact number of 613) in different countries, religious and throughout different ages it has always been considered as a symbol of prosperity and fertility.
Lately, I've been doing researches for well-known paintings where they integrate this fruit as an element.
I was very intrigued by the painting of Dali "Dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate a second before waking up", and then it hit me, it can't be the only one. And I was right!
Starting from ancient times, or even earlier, the pomegranate has never again stopped being used in art. Sometimes in still life kind of paintings, sometimes associated to people or events.
I've selected some of them, those who I found more interesting and I'm sharing them with you :)
1. Proserpine (Persephone) - Dante Gabriel Rossetti - 1880
You might have heard about the symbol of Persephone, queen of underworld and daughter of Zeus and Demeter, being a pomegranate. There is also a short story explaining why.
"In the Greek myth of Persephone's abduction by Hades, lord of the underworld, the pomegranate represents life, regeneration, and marriage. One day while out gathering flowers, Persephone noticed a narcissus of exquisite beauty. As she bent down to pick it, the earth opened and Hades seized her and dragged her down to his kingdom. By eating a few pomegranate seeds, Persephone tied herself to Hades—the pomegranate being a symbol of the indissolubility of marriage. Inconsolable at the loss of her daughter, the corn goddess Demeter prevented the earth from bearing fruit unless she saw her daughter again. Zeus intervened and worked out a compromise: Persephone should live with Hades for one third of the year and the other two thirds with Demeter. Persephone's return from the underworld each year is marked by the arrival of Spring."
The pomegranate, being the reason she was trapped in the underworld, was literally to die for.
2. Venus Verticordia - Dante Gabriel Rossetti - 1864-1868
Venus, also known as Aphrodite, posing with a pomegranate.
3. Madonna and child - Filippo Lippi
4. Madonna and child with a pomegranate - Italian Florentine school - 1525
5. Madonna and child with a pomegranate - Leonardo da Vinci - 1475-1480
The detail is slightly invisible, but there are pomegranate seeds in her hands.
9. Long woman carrying a basket full of pomegranates - Edwin Longsden
10. Girl with a pomegranate - Natalia Vetrova
11. Girl with a pomegranate - William Adolphe Bouguereau - 1875
12. Marchande de grenades - William Adolphe Bouguereau - 1825-1905
13. Girl with pomegranates - Eugene de Blaas - 1912
14. Woman with a mask - Lorenzo Lippi
15. Girl with a pomegranate - Sasha Repka - 2009
16. Girl with pomegranate - Tatiana STruchkova
17. Girl with a pomegranate - Marina Margo Gromenko - 2010
18. Nude with a pomegranate - John Neil Rodger - 1941
19. Pomegranate tree - Caroline Jamhour (photoshop) - 2009
20. Dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate a second before awakening - Salvador Dali - 1944
21. Five senses - Jacques Linard - 1638
22. Cinq sens, quatre elementrs - Jacques Linard - 1627
23. Pomegranates - Albert Joseph Moore
24. The unicorn and the pomegranate
25. The pomegranate teahouse - A. Volkov - 1924
26. Adoration of the Magi - Gentile da Fabriano
27. Shege e ftua - Bujar Kapllani - 1992
28. Shege e molla - Bujar Kapllani - 1977
29. Sheget mbi gazete - Bujar Kapllani - 1995
Thanks for reading
Love, the pome
xx
je vertet nje artiste ne shpirt...
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