This is a sketch for a no-longer extant painting on canvas intended to decorate a ceiling in a building of the imperial court of Russia, whose memory is preserved in an engraving made by Giambattista& [+]
As with the Rape of Hippodamia (P01658), this marriage scene was commissioned from Rubens as part of the mythological cycle drawn from Ovid´s Metamorphoses, which was to serve as the main artistic dec [+]
In The Metamorphosis, the poet Ovid very precisely describes the moment when Mercury, on his way to Athens, met a group of Nymphs carrying offerings to the goddess Palas. Mercury immediately fell in l [+]
Mercury, the son of Jupiter and Maya, bears his characteristic attributes as the gods´ messenger: a winged hat and shoes, as well as the caduceus, a hazel wand with two serpents wound around it, which [+]
The lack of an autograph work of this theme by Jacopo suggests that the idea for the composition came from Francesco at the end of the 1570s, by which time he had gained greater independence from his [+]
This is a preparatory sketch for a painting of much larger dimensions (present whereabouts unknown). It depicts the Count of Floridablanca (1728-1808), Charles III’s all-powerful minister, accompanied [+]
Espinós structures his composition into three contrasting parts, including a mythological scene with two sculptural Olympian gods in the centre. They are surrounded by a large and colourful gar [+]
As Homer tells it in The Iliad, Paris the shepherd, son of Priam, had to decide with of the three goddesses —Juno, Venus or Minerva— was the most beautiful, and give her the golden apple Mercury he ha [+]
In the autumn of 1636, Peter Paul Rubens was commissioned by agents of Philip IV to produce his largest series of painted canvases to decorate the recently completed hunting lodge at El Pardo, near Ma [+]
According to Ovid (Metamorphosis, book V), in order to avoid her husband Jupiter´s infidelities, the goddess, Juno, converted the nymph, Io, into a lamb and called on Argos, the shepherd, to look afte [+]
Wearing his characteristic winged hat, and with a pan flute next to his left hand, Mercury stealthily approaches a shepherd he has lulled to sleep with the unlimited powers of his music. The latter is [+]
The life-sized figure that represents the planet Mercury holds the caduceus in his left hand and points with the index finger of his extended right hand. Behind him, a fragment of the zodiac presents [+]
The mythological story of the Judgment of Paris begins with the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, where Eris, goddess of Discord, challenged the most beautiful goddesses to take a golden apple which she t [+]
Media figura masculina desnuda, de perfil derecho, con el brazo derecho en alto. En la misma hoja, estudio de la mano izquierda sujetando un palo. Dibujo preparatorio para la figura en la parte centra [+]
Another studio version of this composition, slightly superior in handling, is in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (inv. no. D1570). Two further variants of the composition are in the Louvre [+]
Dibujo en el que se representa a Paris, sentado en una roca de perfil a la izquierda de la composición, tiende la manzana a Venus, semidesnuda en el centro. A la derecha, Minerva con el casco y lanza, [+]
This drawing appears to be by Villena as other drawings, though it lacks and old inscription giving it to Villamena. [+]
Dibujo en el que se representa a la izquierda a Io, convertida en vaca. Argos sentado y dormido se apoya en su cayado, mientras que Mercurio desenvaina la espada, arrodillado a sus pies. Es, posibleme [+]