Currently not on view
Study for the Age of Iron,
1637
Pietro da Cortona (Pietro Berrettini), Italian, 1596 - 1669
x1948-772
Violence takes center stage in this tumultuous composition sketch for The Age of Iron, one of four frescoes in the Sala della Stufa in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence—a project that Cortona designed and executed for the Medici between 1637 and 1640. The cycle’s allegorical theme derives from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in which the world’s creation was followed by the ages of Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron. This preliminary study, dominated by configurations of armed soldiers and defenseless victims, conveys the mayhem and murder that characterized the final and worst age of humankind.
More About This Object
Information
Title
Study for the Age of Iron
Dates
1637
Medium
Pen and brown ink over red chalk on light tan laid paper
Dimensions
31.2 × 26.1 cm (12 5/16 × 10 1/4 in.)
frame: 54.6 × 42.1 × 3.2 cm (21 1/2 × 16 9/16 × 1 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Dan Fellows Platt, Class of 1895
Object Number
x1948-772
Reference Numbers
Gibbons 192
Culture
Materials
- Frank Jewett Mather, Jr., "The Platt Collection of Drawings," Bulletin of the Department of Art and Archaeology (June 1944): 3-18., p. 4, fig. 2
- David R. Coffin, "A drawing by Pietro da Cortona for his fresco of the "age of iron"", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 13, no. 2 (1954): p. 33-37. , p. 33ff; p. 34, fig. 1
- David R. Coffin, "A Drawing by Pietro da Cortona for His Fresco of the 'Age of Iron,'" Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 13, no. 2 (1954): 33–37., fig. 1, p. 34 (illus.)
- Jacob Bean, Italian drawings in the Art Museum, Princeton University; 106 selected examples, (New York: October House, 1966)., no. 23
- Hedy Backlin-Landman, "Italian drawings on tour", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 26, no. 2 (1967): 64-65., p. 64 (illus.)
- Ebria Feinblatt, Old master drawings from American collections: exhibition, April 29-June 13, 1976, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: distribution by Universe Books, 1976). , cat. no. 116
- Felton Gibbons, Catalogue of Italian Drawings in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977)., Vol. 1: pp. 91-92, no. 237 (illustrated in Vol. 2 under the same catalog number)
- Guiliano Briganti, Pietro da Cortona, o, Della pittura barocca, (Firenze: Sansoni, 1982)., pp. 222, 287
- Laura Giles, Lia Markey, Claire Van Cleave, et. al., Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2014)., p. 83, cat. no. 34; p. 84 (illus.); p. 86 (verso illus.)
