De Aetatibus Mundi Imagines

De Aetatibus Mundi Imagines is the chronicle in images of the ages of the world, although this is the main reason to present, with subtle irony, our temporary reality. Eternity is the only enemy able to beat time. Life is fleeting, a world full of grey tones as time passes. In contrast, eternity, shown as a life in full color, is a perfect world. The techniques employed in the drawings are watercolors and washes. It is a book full of overpowering images, loaded with allegorical and historical references, with a strength and vigor that make it hard to believe that they were made in the 16th century because of the validity and modernity of the artistic vision of Francisco de Holanda.

A Renaissance Education

Francisco de Holanda was sent to Italy by an explicit order of the king of Portugal in order to learn the new art of the Renaissance. As luck would have it, Michelangelo taught him for two years and turned him into one of the most outstanding Renaissance artists from the Iberian Peninsula when he returned in 1540. Michelangelo’s influence is obvious; the first thing Francisco de Holanda painted was the creation of the world, inspired by what he could examine still unfinished in the Sistine Chapel.

An Amalgamation of World History

The rich imagery of the manuscript presents the history of the world in six Ages in the tradition of biblical histories. However, the imagery is not strictly biblical in its inspiration, but are more complex and draw from a number of sources, including pagan sources, the early Church Fathers, Christian poets from Late Antiquity, and contemporary works like the Chronicles of Nuremberg and the Chronologia by Nicolau Coelho do Amaral. This mélange of artistic inspiration allowed the Renaissance master to realize the fullness of his imagination and create images that equally beautiful and charged with meaning.