The Four Seasons Paying Homage to Chronos (Sketch for the ceiling fresco of the hall of Neuwartenburg Castle, Upper Austria)

The wings of Chronos, ruler over time, symbolise its swift passing, and thus mortality. His hoop represents the eternal recurrence of the cyclical – here the four seasons. The scene is encircled by a rainbow, a symbol of perpetual new beginning, enhancing the motif of returning spring and the annual cycle. Flora, goddess of Spring, and her auxiliary figures pay homage to Chronos with a wreath and a garland of flowers. On clouds below are fruit-laden Summer, and the allegory of Autumn, wearing a garland of corn and bearing a sickle and a sheaf of corn, from which she proffers a spray to Chronos. Beside her are two cherubs with sheaves and a basket laden with fruit. In the manner of baroque chiaroscuro, an old man personifying Winter sits by a brazier, flanked by Wind and the Zodiac signs Capricorn and Pisces.

Ducke Astrid: Bartolomeo Altomonte, The Four Seasons paying Homage to Chronos ..., in: Ducke Astrid, Habersatter Thomas (Hrsg./Edi.): von | from 0 auf | to 100. Residenzgalerie Salzburg 1923-2023. Salzburg 2023, S./p. 286-287