The Age of Bronze

The Age of Bronze, painted around 1633, likely represents one of the four ages of mankind from Ovid's Metamorphoses—the third age when human civilization began to decline from its original golden innocence. The Four Ages was a popular series subject in Baroque art, allowing painters to contrast idealized past with corrupted present. Cortona's classical education informed his treatment of these mythological themes. His position alongside Bernini and Borromini as one of the three great creators of Roman Baroque style gave him access to the most prestigious commissions in 17th-century Rome, and his approach to illusionistic ceiling painting defined the grandest ambitions of the era.

The allegorical scene combines idealized figures with symbolic elements representing the characteristics of the Bronze Age. Cortona's warm palette and dynamic composition bring narrative energy to the allegorical subject, avoiding the static quality that could plague such themes.