The golden age

Humans and animals coexist peacefully in this lush and fantastic environment. In the foreground, elegant naked figures rest or pose elegantly like statues, while two small children urinate in a stream that flows into a small pool. In the background, figures dance in a circle; Above, in the distance, others sit on a hill and watch the wild animals 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 the four world ages in classical mythology, followed immediately after the creation of the world and was an earthly paradise similar to the Christian Garden of Eden.