유노

Rembrandt painted this Juno, the Roman goddess of wealth and queen of the gods, in the early 1660s, when his own money was long gone. He had been declared insolvent in 1656, sold his house and his prized art collection, and watched younger, smoother painters take the fashionable commissions in Amsterdam. A wealthy creditor of his, a man he owed, seems to have commissioned the picture, and there was later a complaint that Rembrandt was slow to finish it. He loads the goddess with heavy gold, old velvet and a crown, painted thickly, the surface built up in ridges you can almost feel. Some believe the model was Hendrickje Stoffels, his companion of many years, who died around the time the work was underway.