Mercury Rescues the Disguised Io after Beheading Argus
Johann Michael Rottmayr·c. 1695
Historical Context
This scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses shows Mercury rescuing Io — whom Jupiter had disguised as a heifer — by beheading her guard Argus. Painted by Rottmayr around 1695, it belongs to a mythological series that showcases his ability to combine narrative drama with landscape setting. The story of Mercury's cunning defeat of the hundred-eyed Argus was a popular Baroque subject symbolizing the triumph of intelligence over brute watchfulness.
Technical Analysis
Rottmayr integrates the mythological figures into a pastoral landscape with Italian-influenced atmospheric perspective. The warm palette and flowing brushwork create a gentler mood than his more violent mythological scenes, appropriate to Mercury's stealthy approach.
Provenance
Unknown Illinois banker; given by banker to Jacob S. Sherman, Chicago, during the 1930s as collateral for a loan that was never repaid [according to Robert Parker Sherman, son of Jacob S. Sherman, telephone conversation with Martha Wolff, 23 July 2003, transcribed in curatorial file]; bequeathed by Jacob S. Sherman (died 1961) to the Art Institute, 1961.
