The Rape of Proserpine

This belongs to the same royal project as several other Rubens pictures in the Prado: the decoration Philip IV of Spain ordered in the mid-1630s for his hunting lodge outside Madrid, a whole cycle of scenes drawn from Ovid. The story behind it is one the ancients told to explain the seasons. Pluto, god of the underworld, seizes Proserpine, daughter of Ceres, the goddess of the grain, and carries her down to his kingdom. Her mother's grief empties the fields and brings on winter, and only a bargain that returns the girl for part of each year lets the spring come back. Rubens packs the canvas with resistance and speed. The goddesses Minerva, Venus and Diana rush in to try to stop the abduction, while down among the horses small cupids have seized the reins and are driving the chariot on toward the dark.