The Rape of Ganymede

In 1636 Philip IV of Spain handed Rubens an enormous job: some 60 mythological scenes to decorate the Torre de la Parada, a hunting lodge in the woods outside Madrid. Rubens was in his late fifties by then and ran a large workshop, so most of the series was designed by him and painted by assistants. This one he finished himself. It takes a few lines from Ovid, the moment Jupiter turns into an eagle and snatches up the boy Ganymede to carry him to the gods. Look for the quiver of arrows the eagle's beak has caught by its strap, and Jupiter's thunderbolt off in the sky, both details Rubens added late over an earlier sketch. It hangs today in the Prado.