FERRARI, Gregorio de
(b. 1647, Porto Maurizio, d. 1726, Genova)

Juno and Argus

1685-95
Oil on canvas, 140 x 138 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

The subject of the painting is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Io, the beautiful daughter of the river god Inachus, fell prey to the passion of Jupiter, who - in order to hide her from his jealous wife - turned the girl into a cow. The wily Juno talked her husband into giving her the fine-looking animal and had the hundred-eyed Argus guard it. Jupiter gave Mercury the task of killing the wicked guard. The inventive god approached the meadows and played songs on his pipe. The guard was charmed by the new and masterful melodies, and was lulled to sleep. Mercury beheads the sleeping guardian.

The vigour of the composition arranged on a diagonal, the lightness of the figure of Juno, recumbent on a cloud, and of her wind-blown draperies, the contrast of their bright, vivid colours with the muted tones of the rest of the picture, are characteristic of the artist's manner, which foreshadows eighteenth-century Rococo art.




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