The Golden Age

Pater's Golden Age, painted in 1715, depicts the classical myth of humanity's first idyllic era — a paradise of leisure, abundance, and harmony with nature. The subject was popular in French Rococo painting as an allegory of aristocratic pleasure. Pater, who died young at 39, produced a substantial body of work despite his short career, specializing in these genteel pastoral and mythological fantasies derived from his master Watteau's vision.

The oil-on-wood support gives the painting a smooth, luminous quality suited to the idyllic subject. Pater's delicate touch and soft color harmonies create an Arcadian atmosphere, with figures loosely grouped in a verdant landscape rendered with characteristically feathery foliage.