Vulcan forging the Thunderbolts of Jupiter

In the mid-1630s Philip IV of Spain ordered dozens of mythological scenes to hang in the Torre de la Parada, a hunting lodge in the hills outside Madrid, and he turned to the most sought-after painter in Europe to design them. Rubens was near 60 and slowed by gout, so he sketched the compositions and left much of the enlarging to his workshop. This was his share of the story from Ovid: Vulcan, the smith of the gods, gripping a heavy hammer to beat out the thunderbolts that Jupiter hurls from the sky. The god of fire is all muscle and effort, lit by the forge, the anvil and the half-made bolts in front of him. Velazquez, the king's own painter, worked on the same commission.