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Study for the Age of Bronze

1637
Not on view
This rapid sketch of a Roman military triumph was intended for a fresco painting alluding to the theme of the "Age of Bronze" in the Camera della Stufa of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence that Cortona began in 1637 for Ferdinando II de' Medici. According to the account of the early history of the world given in Ovid's Metamorphoses, the Age of Bronze was thought to have been bellicose in spirit: "...ready to fly to arms savage, but not yet impious." In keeping with this Ovidian theme, the composition here is dominated at the right by an enthroned general, who from a high throne leans forward to crown the victorious soldiers of the Roman legions approaching from the left; on the lower right, nude prisoners dejectedly crouch in bondage. The Museum's vast collection of drawings by the Baroque master Pietro da Cortona includes a second study for the "Age of Bronze" (see inv. no. 1972.118.248)

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Study for the Age of Bronze
  • Artist: Pietro da Cortona (Pietro Berrettini) (Italian, Cortona 1596–1669 Rome)
  • Date: 1637
  • Medium: Pen and brown ink, over black chalk
  • Dimensions: 9 3/16 x 6 3/4in. (23.3 x 17.2cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1964
  • Object Number: 64.48.2
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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Men Digging and Constructing a Wall, Pietro da Cortona (Pietro Berrettini) Italian, Pen and brown ink, over black chalk
Men Digging and Constructing a Wall
Pietro da Cortona (Pietro Berrettini)
17th century
Sculptures of Dafrosa and Flaviano, standing in a niche in the Church of Santa Bibiana, Rome
Pietro da Cortona (Pietro Berrettini)
Giovanni Giacomo De Rossi
ca. 1680–91
Barberinai Aulae Fornix
Multiple artists/makers
ca. 1648–77
The Virgin Immaculate, Pietro da Cortona (Pietro Berrettini) Italian, Red chalk
The Virgin Immaculate
Pietro da Cortona (Pietro Berrettini)
1596–1669
Wisdom leading the muses
Pietro da Cortona (Pietro Berrettini)
Jean Mariette
ca. 1690–1740

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