Humanity: The Golden Age, The Silver Age, and The Iron Age - Gustave Moreau
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Description
A complex Symbolist polyptych by Gustave Moreau, depicting the progression of human history through biblical and mythological narratives.
Gustave Moreau, a central figure in the French Symbolist movement, produced this complex polyptych between 1879 and 1886. The work is structured as a series of nine individual panels, arranged within a decorative frame, topped by a lunette depicting a celestial figure. Moreau organises the narrative into three distinct tiers, each representing a mythological or biblical epoch of human history.
The top tier, representing the Golden Age, focuses on the lives of Adam and Eve. The middle tier, the Silver Age, draws upon the myth of Orpheus, while the bottom tier, the Iron Age, depicts the tragic narrative of Cain and Abel. Moreau employs a dense, painterly technique, layering pigments to create a dreamlike, atmospheric quality that characterises his mature style. The figures are often small in scale, placed within environments that blend natural elements with architectural or supernatural motifs.
Moreau was known for his rejection of contemporary realism, preferring instead to draw from classical literature, biblical texts, and esoteric symbolism. This work demonstrates his interest in the cyclical nature of human existence and the transition from innocence to experience and violence. The composition relies on a grid-like arrangement, yet the individual scenes maintain a sense of fluid, painterly motion. The colour palette is dominated by deep, earthy tones, punctuated by flashes of light that draw the eye to the central figures in each panel. This piece remains a primary example of Moreau's ability to synthesise disparate mythological traditions into a single, cohesive visual statement. It reflects his preoccupation with the intersection of the divine and the human, rendered through a highly personal and imaginative lens.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
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Specific Features
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- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
- Multiple sizes and framing options available
- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
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Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
Humanity: The Golden Age, The Silver Age, and The Iron Age - Gustave Moreau
Artist Biography
Gustave Moreau
He was born in Paris in 1826, a sickly, solitary child who drew compulsively. He trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and fell under the influence of Theodore Chasseriau, an eclectic painter whose depictions of enigmatic sea goddesses left a permanent mark. Chasseriau's death in 1856 shook Moreau badly enough to send him to Italy for two years, where he copied Mantegna, Carpaccio and the Venetians, filling notebooks with studies that fed his work for decades.
His breakthrough came at the 1864 Salon with Oedipus and the Sphinx, a painting that fused classical mythology with a strange, jewelled intensity that critics struggled to categorise. He became the foremost Symbolist painter, working in a style guided by what has been called Neo-Platonist faith: a belief that the physical world was imperfect and that art could capture something closer to divine vision. He never married, regarding the career of an artist as "a true priesthood", though he maintained a discreet relationship with Alexandrine Dureux for decades, subsidising an apartment for her near his family home.
As a teacher at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Moreau proved unexpectedly open-minded. His students included Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault, both of whom credited his insistence on personal expression over academic formula. Andre Breton and Salvador Dali later claimed his Symbolist imagery as a direct precursor to Surrealism.
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