| Jupiter and Io | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Antonio da Correggio |
| Year | c. 1532–1533 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 163.5 cm × 70.5 cm (64.4 in × 27.8 in) |
| Location | Kunsthistorisches Museum,Vienna |
Jupiter and Io is a painting by the ItalianHigh Renaissance artistAntonio da Correggio around 1530. It now hangs in theKunsthistorisches Museum inVienna,Austria.[1]
The series of Jupiter's Loves was conceived after the success ofVenus and Cupid with a Satyr.Correggio painted four canvasses in total, although others had been programmed perhaps.
In the first edition of hisLives, lateRenaissance art biographerGiorgio Vasari mentions only two of the paintings,Leda and the Swan (today at theGemäldegalerie, Berlin) and oneVenus (presumably theDanae currently in theBorghese Gallery ofRome), although he knew them only from descriptions provided byGiulio Romano. Vasari mentions that the commissioner, Duke Federico Gonzaga II of Mantua, wanted to donate the works to emperor and King of SpainCharles V: that the other two works,Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle andJupiter and Io, were inSpain during the16th century implies that they were part of the same series. British art historianCecil Gould suggested that Federico had commissioned theIo andGanymede for himself, and that they were ceded toCharles V only after the duke's death in 1540, perhaps on occasion of the marriage of the king's son,Philip;[2] other hypothesized that Federico ordered them for the Ovid room in hisPalazzo Te.[3]
The canvas was inVienna since as early as the 1610s, when it is mentioned in the Habsburg imperial collections together withGanymede.[2]
The scene ofJupiter and Io is inspired byOvid's classicMetamorphoses.Io, daughter ofInachus, the first king ofArgos, is seduced byJupiter (Zeus inGreek), who hides behind the dunes to avoid hurting the jealousJuno (Hera in Greek).Jupiter was often tempted by other women and took on various disguises in order to cover his various escapades,one time taking the form of aswan,another time of aneagle, and in this painting he is not becoming something else so much as enveloping himself in a dark cloud, even though it is bright daylight. He is embracing thenymph, his face barely visible above hers. She is pulling Jupiter's vague, smoky hand towards herself with barely contained sensuality; this is asensual painting, depicting one of the many loves of the god. Indeed, theDuke of Mantua, Federico Gonzaga, wanted to place the painting and its companion pieces in a room dedicated to the loves of Jupiter.
Noteworthy is the contrast between the evanescent figure of the immaterialJupiter, and the sensual substance of Io's body, shown lost in anerotic rapture which anticipates the works ofBernini andRubens.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Correggio's Jupiter and Io,Smarthistory atKhan Academy |