Plaster Plaques: Seasons of LifeBertel Thorvaldsen's Ages of Man plaques are based on an interpretation of the poem 'The Four Ages of Man' written by Anne Bradstreet (1612 1672). Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770 1844) lived in Rome for many years where he became one of the most important European representatives of Neo Classicist sculptural art. The roundels depict the four ages, or four seasons, of man: Childhood (Spring), Youth (Summer), Middle Age (Autumn), Old Age