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For a long time, this small painting was believed to depict The Iron Age and to form part of a cycle together with other two works by the same author and of a similar format, respectively portraying The Golden Age and The Silver Age.
Instead, recent studies have shown that this small painting is not related to the other two, not only because it is painted on a different medium, copper rather than panel, but above all because the subject had been erroneously identified.
In fact, it depicts the gods of Olympus with Hercules and the Muses. The iconographic theme is inspired by a passage of the Theogony by the Greek poet Hesiod, in which he relates that Jupiter, having dethroned his father Saturn, became the head of the gods. Zucchi depicts him perched high in the sky, delivering to Juno the attributes that identify her as the queen of Olympus. The goddess of Justice, Astrea, and Mercury, messenger and cup-bearer of the gods, figure on the sides of the couple.
At the bottom, as if in a sort of encyclopaedia of mythology, a theme particularly close to the painter's heart, given his in-depth knowledge of mythography, the other divinities of Olympus flaunt their respective attributes.
The small work, perhaps destined for the door of a cabinet or for a private study, was probably commissioned to Jacopo Zucchi by Ferdinando I de' Medici during his cardinalate.
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