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Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0 · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileA group of classical deities gather in the heavens, gesturing downward as water falls from the clouds to submerge the world. Below, a small circular temple stands on a high point while the heads of drowning people are visible in the rising floodwaters. The painting is executed in a monochromatic, sketch-like style on the reverse of a wooden portrait panel.
This scene depicts the narrative from Ovid's Metamorphoses where the gods decide to end the human race via a flood. In the context of Renaissance Florence, such images explored the relationship between celestial planetary forces and the fate of the material world.
Ovid
The Metamorphoses (Book I) provides the primary literary source for the Council of the Gods and the subsequent flood.
Marsilio Ficino
Ficino's Neoplatonic theories regarding the influence of planetary deities like Saturn and Mars on terrestrial events provide the philosophical context for this depiction.
Object
Oil on panel
mythological
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.