On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P01175
- Author
- Velázquez, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y (Spanish)
- Title
- Mercury and Argos
- Chronology
- Ca. 1659
- Technique
- Support
- Measures
- 127 cm x 250 cm
- School
- Theme
- Shown
- Yes
- Entrance
- COLECCION REAL
- Procedence
- Royal Collection
This work depicts the mythological
passage from Ovid's Metamorphosis
in which Argos the shepherd is put
to sleep by the music of Mercury
—recognizable by his elongated hat—
while guiding a calf for the Roman
goddess, Juno. She had received the
animal as a present from her
husband, Jupiter who, in an effort
to hide one of his amorous
adventures, had converted his
lover, Io the nymph, into a calf,
thus avoiding his wife's
jealousy.
An allegory of the permanent need
for the Prince's vigilance in his
kingdom, this work was painted for
the Hall of Mirrors at Madrid's
Alcázar Palace, where it formed a
group with three other paintings
lost in the Alcázar fire of 1734:
Apollo and Marsias, Venus and
Adonis and Cupid and Psyche.
The complex format, imposed by the
intention to hang the work over a
window, implied a slightly forced
composition. This, along with an
extremely fluid technique, destroys
the limits of a conventional
painting and fills the work with
life.
Beginning in 1666, this work was
listed in all of the inventories of
Madrid's Alcázar and Royal Palaces.
It entered the Prado Museum
collection in 1819.
Location on the map
