Willem van Mieris depicts the early Golden Age described in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (I:89–114). This idyll of constant spring, abundance, and untouched nature will ultimately evolve into an age of iron, characterized by greed and aggression. The refined drawing not only reveals the technical virtuosity of the artist, who co-founded the Leiden Drawing Academy, but, in a subtle form of graphic metamorphosis, conjures the visual effect of an etching.
Willem van Mieris (1662–1747), The Golden Age: Ovid “Metamorphoses,” I:89–-150, 1689. Point of brush and black ink and wash over graphite on laid paper; framing line in graphite, 5 3/4 x 7 3/8 inches (14.6 x 18.8 cm). Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913) in 1909, I, 162.