Das Orangenbild (The Four Ages of Man)

The Orangenbild was a wedding present to the painter’s friend, the distinguished art theorist Konrad Fiedler (1841-1895). Only thirty years after its completion in 1878 was it entitled The Four Ages of Man. On panel, using the old-fashioned tempera medium, the scene is set in the Garden of the Hesperides - a pagan Paradise - where nymphs guard trees bearing the golden apples, wedding gifts to Hera. Echoes of Poussin, with free quotations from Luca Signorelli are found in this splendid canvas, whose archaism may also have been stimulated by the popular art of Edward Burne-Jones.