The Golden Age

Nude men, women, and children relax and gather food in a lush landscape, illustrating the mythical era of eternal spring under the reign of Saturn. At the center stands a large globe topped with a horn of plenty and a cruciform finial, while Saturn himself appears in the clouds above holding a scythe. The composition shows humanity in a state of nature, gathering honey from hollow trees and living peaceably among animals without the need for labor or tools.

This work illustrates the 'Aetas Aurea' (Golden Age) described in Ovid's Metamorphoses, a period of primordial perfection central to Renaissance Neoplatonic thought. In the esoteric tradition, this era represents the state of the world before the 'Fall,' serving as a macrocosmic ideal that alchemists and Hermetic philosophers sought to recover through their respective Great Works.