Allegory of Autumn

Five putti are playing with grapes, wine, apples and pears. They are the attributes of autumn, the time when the harvest is brought in and the grapes are pressed.

This over-door panel by the Antwerp painter Geeraerts looks like a marble relief. It is painted in many shades of grey, hence it is called a ‘grisaille’. In the Netherlands, this type of marble imitation is also called ‘Witjes’, after the painter Jacob de Wit, who specialised in the technique.