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Mercury and Argus in a Landscape
Dirck van der Lisse (Dutch, 1669)
c. 1635
- Medium
- oil on copper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Framed: 62 x 79 x 7 cm (24 7/16 x 31 1/8 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 37 x 49.2 cm (14 9/16 x 19 3/8 in.)
- Culture
- Netherlands
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Bequest of Mrs. Severance A. Millikin
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This painting depicts a scene from ancient myth. The queen of the gods, Juno, jealous of her husband Jupiter's affair with Io, changed the mortal woman into a cow. Juno then ordered Argus - a giant with many eyes - to watch over Io constantly. In response, Zeus sent Mercury, the god of deception, to free Io. Mercury lulled Argus to sleep by playing the flute, then killed him and released the cow. The artist set the scene in a landscape with classical ruins. The expansive vista belongs to an earlier tradition that evokes the immenseness of the world through panoramic views, offering the suggestion of boundless space.
