Danaë

Correggio painted this Danaë around 1531 as part of a set, four canvases of the loves of Jupiter made for Federico Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua, who wanted them as a gift for the emperor Charles V. Here the god arrives as a soft golden cloud, and a small winged Cupid helps draw back the sheet. Over the next two centuries the picture became a prize of war and diplomacy, carried from Mantua to Prague, looted to Stockholm by a Swedish king, taken to Rome by an abdicated queen, then passed through French and English hands before Prince Borghese brought it back to Rome in 1827. It has hung in his family's gallery there ever since.