Jupiter and Io
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Jupiter and Io |
| Antonio da Correggio, c. 1530 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 163,5 × 70,5 cm |
| Kunsthistorisches Museum |
Jupiter and Io (c. 1530) is a painting by the Italian late Renaissance artist Antonio Allegri da Correggio. It is housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna, Austria.
The painting was created as a companion piece to the Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle, also in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The two pictures, along with another pair, were probably intended to decorate the Ovid Room in the Palazzo Te for Federico II Gonzaga of Mantua; however, they were given as a gift to Emperor Charles V, and subsequently the cycle was dispersed outside Italy.
The scene of Jupiter and Io is inspired by Ovid's classic Metamorphoses. Io, daughter of the first king of Argos Inachus, is seduced by Jupiter (Zeus in Greek), who hides behind the dunes to avoid hurting the jealous Juno (Hera in Greek).
Noteworthy is the contrast between the evanescent figure of the immaterial Jupiter, and the sensual substance of Io's body, shown lost in an erotic rapture which anticipates the works of Bernini and Rubens.
