The Age of Gold

Humans and animals co-exist peacefully in this lush, fantastical setting. In the foreground, graceful nude figures lounge or pose elegantly like statues, while two small boys urinate into a stream that flows into a small pool. In the background, figures dance in a circle; high above in the distance, others sit on a hill and watch wild animals at play.

Jacopo Zucchi made this highly finished compositional study, or modello, for the small scale painting The Age of Gold, now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. The Golden Age, the first of four ages of the world in classical mythology, followed immediately after the world's creation and was an earthly paradise akin to the Christian Garden of Eden.