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Description: | Signed: yes Description: Classical figures were often inserted into landscape compositions. An implied mythological narrative could help enhance the perceived intellectual content of a work. Here, Mercury plays his flute to Argus who sits by a small rocky cascade. Behind them cattle graze on a verdant rural plain and mountains crowd the horizon. To the right a docile white cow takes the role of Io, a lover of Zeus who was transformed by the jealous goddess Hera. Mercury has been sent to lull the shepherd Argus to sleep so that he can steal Io and return her to Zeus. | Subjects: | landscape; mythology (Mercury and Argus); figure; animal (cow) | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Valenciennes, Pierre Henri de (French painter, 1750-1819) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=9008... | Go to resource |
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