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Pummelo: whole and half-fruit c. 1640

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Date

c. 1640

Description

A drawing of a large orange-coloured pummelo hanging from the end of a twig with a small green fruitlet to one side, and a large orbicular leaf, with a broadly winged petiole, on the other. Below is a section with a thick rind, partly brownish mesocarp and 13 segments. This drawing comes from a group of over a hundred studies of citrus fruits in the 'paper museum'. Cassiano had them engraved to illustrate a treatise on the cultivation of citrus fruit, written by his friend Giovanni Battista Ferrari, who enthused about the size of the pummelo, one of the largest citrus fruits. However, as the cross-section below shows, much of the fruit’s bulk is made up of a thick pith.
Alternate title: 'Pummelo, Citrus grandis (L.) Osb.: whole and half-fruit'
Descriptive Medium: 'Watercolour and bodycolour over black chalk', 'prepared paper, cream paper, black chalk, bodycolour, gum', 'watercolour painting'
Additional Makers: Collection of Cassiano Dal Pozzo (1588-1657) (collector)