Jupiter and Mercury with Philemon and Baucis
c. 1650
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
Plate: 48.7 × 56.5 cm (19 3/16 × 22 1/4 in.); Sheet: 49.4 × 56.7 cm (19 1/2 × 22 3/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
39282
Art Historical Context
This engraving by Flemish printmaker Nicolaes Lauwers, created around 1650, brings to life a beloved episode from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The scene depicts the gods Jupiter and Mercury receiving humble hospitality from the elderly couple Philemon and Baucis, who unknowingly welcome divine guests into their modest home. The story underscores themes of piety, generosity, and reward, popular in seventeenth-century Europe as moral lessons drawn from classical antiquity. Lauwers worked in the reproductive engraving tradition, translating painted compositions into detailed prints on paper. This mediu...