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.
Date
circa 1635
date QS:P571,+1635-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902
Medium
Oil on copper
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.)
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
The author died in 1669, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.
The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.enCC0Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedicationfalsefalse
In many jurisdictions, faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are not copyrightable. The Wikimedia Foundation's position is that these works are not copyrightable in the United States (see Commons:Reuse of PD-Art photographs). In these jurisdictions, this work is actually in the public domain and the requirements of the digital reproduction's license are not compulsory.