CLAES CORNELISZ. MOEYAERT | MERCURY AND ARGUS SURROUNDED BY ANIMALS IN A LANDSCAPE

Moeyaert was one of Rembrandt’s most prolific and competitive contemporaries in Amsterdam. This is the earliest dated history painting by the artist, and exemplifies the narrative art of the so-called ‘Pre-Rembrandtists.’

The subject comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Jupiter falls in love with Io, a priestess in the service of his wife Hera. To save Io from Hera’s ensuing wrath, Jupiter transforms her into a white heifer, but Hera, wise to the plan, puts the cow under the guard of Argus, her shepherd who has one hundred eyes. In return, Jupiter thwarts Hera’s scheme by commanding his son Mercury, disguised as a shepherd, to lull Argus to sleep with an enchanted flute and thus free Io. In this work, Argus has succumbed to the spell of the music and Mercury is on the point of drawing his sword to slay the shepherd.

The temple here bears some similarity to the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli, and the motif appears in others of Moeyaert’s paintings.