Page of Allegory of the Four Seasons - Summer by WIT, Jacob de in the Web Gallery of Art, a searchable image collection and database of European paintings and sculptures (1100-1850)

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Allegory of the Four Seasons - Summer

1751-52
Oil on canvas, 218 x 144 cm
Staatliche Museen, Kassel

Jacob de Wit, a leading representative of Dutch ceiling painting was responsible for a seasonal cycle commissioned by Landgrave Wilhelm VIII for the great galleried hall at Schloss Wilhelmshhe. This cycle is characteristic of De Wit's works in grisaille, generally allegorical representations of putti, which were popular and internationally sought-after decorations. With their graduated greys, these works - sometimes called 'witjes', in a pun on the name Wit, meaning white - imitate stone bas-relief. The theoretical architectural function of the works is clearly expressed in their organisation as niches with a stele in each.

The divinity appropriate to each of the seasons is represented by a bust on a plinth, while a small crowd of putti make merry play with the god's attributes. Summer is represented by Ceres, the thyrsus staff with its pine-cone, the wine-jar and the jug, are all traditional iconographical representations of the season.