Joachim Wtewael - The Golden Age

Joachim Wtewael - The Golden Age
  • Title: The Golden Age
  • Artist: Joachim Wtewael (1566-1638)
  • Date: 1605
  • Medium: Oil on copper
  • Dimensions: 23 x 31 cm

Joachim Wtewael, a renowned painter from Utrecht, stood out as one of the most skilled Netherlandish Mannerists. In his work "The Golden Age," he crafted a magnificent painting on copper aimed at an erudite collector. Drawing inspiration from the initial passages of Ovid's Metamorphoses (8 CE), Wtewael depicts a period preceding the eras of silver, bronze, and iron, where perpetual spring reigned and rivers of nectar flowed. In this idyllic setting, humanity lived harmoniously, devoid of laws yet conducting themselves virtuously and contentedly.

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