This library is built in the open.
If you spot an error, have a suggestion, or just want to say hello — we’d love to hear from you.
Wikimedia Commons · CC0 · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileafter Hendrick Goltzius
A central female figure in classical armor, likely representing the Bronze Age or Bellona, stands prominently on a hill holding a spear. Surrounding her are scenes of human industry and emerging conflict: laborers build a stone fortress, sailors navigate a rough sea in a galley, and soldiers prepare for war. The foreground is littered with symbols of martial technology, including a helmet, sword, and early cannon.
This work belongs to a series by Hendrick Goltzius illustrating Ovid's Metamorphoses, specifically the 'Ages of Man.' It reflects the Renaissance philosophical interest in the cyclical nature of history and the moral decline of humanity, where the Bronze Age represents the moment mankind first turned toward organized warfare and technological conquest of the natural world.
Oppida cum castris meditari tertia cepit, Ferrato et Marti sternere Ahena viam. Et fluctus sulcare feros, ventosq. furentes Carbaseo impigre spernere fisa sinu. PANNEAU tiré d'un recueil de 52 planches représentant les Métamorphoses d'Ovide, dessinées et gravées par Henri Goltzius, né à Mulbracht en 1558, mort à Haarlem en 1616. LETTRENE XVIIIe siècle, typographie de J. Covens et C. Mortier à Amsterdam. ANNEAV XVIe Siècle. LITT. P. Jos. Maes, Anvers. PL. 57
Translation
She began to contemplate towns and camps for a third time, And to pave the way for iron-clad Mars with bronze. And to furrow the wild waves, and trustfully to spurn The raging winds with a canvas breast.
Ovid, Metamorphoses
This print is an illustration of Book I of the Metamorphoses, depicting the Third Age of Man (the Bronze Age).
Object
Engraving
allegory
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · CC0
http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.719469
Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedication
7680 × 5952 px
c7553ce8b06d2c2375a8aa57332d4858f914520d
May 30, 2024
March 23, 2026
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 1, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.