Jupiter and Callisto

By 1744 Boucher was the most sought-after painter in France, and he returned again and again to Ovid's tale of Jupiter and Callisto. The king of the gods wanted the nymph Callisto, a sworn follower of the chaste goddess Diana, so he took on Diana's own shape to get near her. Boucher paints the trap at its tenderest moment, two seemingly female figures leaning into an embrace among the reeds, with an eagle and a scatter of cupids hinting at who the false goddess really is. Look closely and the disguised Jupiter is a shade darker and heavier of limb than the girl he is deceiving. Callisto trusts the embrace completely. In the story it ends badly for her, changed first into a bear and then set among the stars.