I have slowly been going through my pictures from our trip to Switzerland and Italy over the holidays. On our way to Rome we spent one afternoon in Milan and visited the magnificent Duomo. As we made our way into the cathedral I notice that, just below the arch over the main entrance, there were sculptures of various types of fruits.

Low and behold one of the fruits in the very front (top left corner) so happens to be a pomegranate. I was immediately intrigued and wondered about the significance of pomegranates in Italian art. So I finally looked it up in my Food and Feasting in Art book to see if it was similar to what pomegranates mean in our culture, which is fertility. So I found out the following:

Pomegranate meaning: Fertility, the Church, and the Passion of Christ

Pomegranates often appear in scenes of meal with Christ as a symbol of Passion, in Flemish and Italian still lifes of the 17th and 18th centuries, and also in female and family portraits.Â