The Four Ages of Mankind, The Iron Age

Alongside Bertholet Flémal's La Déploration, exhibited in the same room, these canvases evoke the classicizing trend that animated the Liège school of painting in the 17th century. Lairesse is one of the most famous figures of this trend, drawing on Roman and French models for a balanced, restrained style of painting, combining the grace of antique poses and drapery with a sense of rhythm and harmony inherited from Nicolas Poussin (1614-1675) and his emulators. His passion for Poussin was particularly evident in his Grand livre des peintres, published in 1707, which earned him the nickname "Dutch Poussin". Initially trained by Flémal in his native town, he moved to Bois-le-Duc in 1665, before settling permanently in Amsterdam in 1667, where he embarked on a major career as a decorator, forging his reputation by bringing Poussin's classicism, which he had discovered through engraving, to Dutch soil. In Amsterdam, he worked for the Stadhouder William of Orange, painting large-scale compositions for the civil chamber (Binnenhot) in The Hague. He took part in decorating the châteaux of Soestayck and de Loo, and produced several grisaille decors, of which the Orleans series is undoubtedly the latest example, but also one of the most ambitious. These four paintings were intended to decorate the vestibule of the wealthy merchant David Hompton, for his sumptuous home on the Keizergracht in Amsterdam. Probably originally arranged two by two and facing each other, they gave the illusion of large sculpted groups set in marble niches, a trompe-l'œil achieved through a cameo of greys - a process in which Lairesse was a master, pioneering this decorative solution that heralded the great decors of the 18th century. These canvases evoke the ancient conception of the unfolding of human history, from an idyllic Golden Age of peace and happiness, to the ever-deteriorating Iron Age of war, misery and despair. This slow decline of Man, from the Golden Age to the Silver Age, then to the Bronze Age and finally to the Iron Age, designated by metals of diminishing value, is described in Hesiod's The Labors and the Days and in Ovid's Metamorphoses . Lairesse proposes an allegorical representation of these four ages, following the ancient texts or inventing new iconography.

The Iron Age brings the narrative to a close. Chaos reigns in a disorder of movement and noise. The allegory of War rises up brandishing sword and shield, soldiers murder women and children. On the ground lie their everyday belongings, not far from a fallen column and an olive branch crushed by the crowd. Above the tumult, the virgin Astrée, now blindfolded, joins the heavens forever. At the top, the intermingled branches of thistle and wheat symbolize the confusion of good and evil. In the central medallion, prisoners are being executed.