A Hunting Scene

This is one of the most singular works of the Renaissance. It’s inspiration was the fifth book of On the Nature of Things by the Epicurean poet and philosopher Lucretius (ca. 99–55 B.C.). A manuscript of Lucretius’s work was discovered in 1417 and published in Florence in 1471–73. Lucretius believed that the workings of the world and the evolution of humans can be accounted for by natural rather than divine causes, and he put forward a vision of the history of primitive man and the advent of civilization much discussed in Florentine intellectual circles. For more information visit metmuseum.org. (Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)