Io at the left as a cow, Jupiter on a cloud in the centre and Juno at the right with putti holding an eagle captive in the lower right
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
sheet: 11 5/16 x 17 5/16 in. (28.8 x 43.9 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951
Accession Number
51.501.4257
Art Historical Context
This captivating etching, titled *Io at the left as a cow, Jupiter on a cloud in the centre and Juno at the right with putti holding an eagle captive in the lower right*, draws from classical mythology in Ovid's *Metamorphoses*. It depicts the tragic tale of Io, transformed into a cow by Jupiter to hide his affair from his jealous wife Juno. Here, Pietro Testa and Pietro Santi Bartoli vividly capture the drama: Jupiter aloft on clouds, Juno commanding putti (playful child spirits) who restrain his sacred eagle, symbolizing divine jealousy and retribution. Created between 1650 and 1690, this wo...
About the Artist
Pietro Testa|Pietro Santi Bartoli · 1612–1650
Pietro Testa was born in Lucca in 1612 and, in accordance with the conventions of Italian artistic training, made his way to Rome while still young. There he studied under two of the leading painters of the early seventeenth century: Domenichino, from whom he absorbed a taste for classical restraint and narrative clarity, and Pietro da Cortona, whose more exuberant Baroque manner offered a contras...