Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto

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Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto

Caravaggio, c. 1597

Oil on plaster ceiling

300 × 180 cm

Villa Ludovisi, Rome

Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto (c. 1597) is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, located in the casino of the Villa Ludovisi, Rome. It is unusual in being painted in oils on plaster - oil painting is normally on canvas or, less frequently, on wood.

According to an early biographer, one of Caravaggio's aims was to show up critics who claimed that he had no grasp of perspective - these three figures demonstrate the most dramatic foreshortening imaginable. They also should give pause to those who claim that he always painted from live models.

The painting was done for Caravaggio's patron Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, on the ceiling of the cardinal's garden villa at porta Pinciana. Here the cardinal dabbled in alchemy, and Caravaggio has painted an allegory of the alchemical triad of Paracelsus - Jupiter stands for sulphur and air, Neptune for mercury and water, and Pluto for salt and earth. Each is identified by his beast, Jupiter by the eagle, Neptune the seahorse, Pluto by the three-headed dog cerberus. Jupiter is reaching out to move the celestial sphere in which the sun revolves around the Earth - Galileo was a friend of Del Monte but had yet to make his mark on cosmology.