Jupiter and Io

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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 connected to the Ganymede abducted by the eagle, also in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The double painting was probably intended to decorate the Ovid's Room in the Gonzaga's Palazzo Te of Mantua (together with other two works of similar subject): however, they were gifted to Emperor Charles V and subsequently the cycle was dispersed outside Italy.

The scene of Jupiter and Io is inspired to Ovid's classics Metamorphoses. Io, daughter of the first king of Argos Inachus, is seduced by Jupiter, who hides himself behind the dunes to avoid hurting the jealous Juno.

The noteworthy fascination of the paintings stem probably from the contrast between the undefinite figure of materializing Jupiter, and the concreteness of Io's one, who is shown lost in an erotical rapture anticipating works of authors like Bernini and Rubens.

Reference

[Kunsthistorisches page with year reference]

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