Mercurio e Argo

In the mid-1630s Philip IV of Spain ordered scores of paintings of Ovid's myths to decorate a hunting lodge outside Madrid, and Rubens, by then the most sought-after painter in Europe, took on the huge commission with his workshop. This small panel belongs to that world of stories. It shows the moment Mercury, sent by Jupiter, lulls the hundred-eyed giant Argus to sleep with music before killing him to free a girl Jupiter had turned into a white heifer. Rubens catches the pause just before the violence, Mercury reaching quietly for his sword as the last eyes close. He painted more than one version of the scene. This one, on wood, is in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.