Cerese dea frugum regina Siculorum · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Cerese dea frugum regina Siculorum
Subject: Gods; Goddesses; Agriculture; Harvest; Important Women; Famous Women; Roman Mythology; Ceres
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Italian Countryside; Italy
Description: The goddess of agriculture, Ceres, is depicted in the background of the engraving wearing a crown and holding a scepter. Boccaccio explains that after discovering agriculture, Ceres had tamed oxen and trained them to yoke. She also discovered planting seeds and then taught men how to harvest them once they matured. There is one man plowing the fields with the oxen, and another in the background husking grain. There is another man with a bag of flour over his head, as Ceres also taught men how to turn flour into an edible fare. Ceres wears the crown and scepter to signify her importance linked to agriculture and harvest.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:18127
Language: lat
Source Name: Iohannis Bocacij in librum de claris mulieribus
Parent Collection: 1487 Leuven; 1487 Leuven
Image: mta_18127_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Gods; Goddesses; Agriculture; Harvest; Important Women; Famous Women; Roman Mythology; Ceres