Mercury and Argus

Mercury and Argus (c. 1636) depicts the myth from Ovid's Metamorphoses where Mercury, sent by Jupiter to free the maiden Io from her bovine imprisonment, lulls the hundred-eyed watchman Argus to sleep with music and storytelling before cutting off his head. The painting belongs to Rubens's late mythological works, where his technique became increasingly free and atmospheric — the figures embedded in a warm, golden ambient light that suffuses the entire canvas rather than being defined by sharp chiaroscuro. By the mid-1630s Rubens had recovered from the grief of Isabella Brant's death and the discomfort of his diplomatic career's demands to enter a final creative phase of remarkable fertility and personal happiness, sustained by his second marriage and the pleasures of Het Steen. Mercury lulling Argus with music was a subject that could be treated with lyrical atmospheric warmth rather than dramatic violence, and Rubens's treatment has exactly that quality — the killing that follows the enchantment is not shown, only the moment of magical suspension before it. The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden hold this among their outstanding Rubens holdings.

The painting demonstrates Rubens' late style with loose, fluid brushwork and warm, atmospheric coloring. The sleeping Argus and the approaching Mercury are set within a lush landscape that shows the influence of Rubens' renewed interest in nature painting.

This mythological scene from Rubens's late period (1636) is painted with the fluid, transparent technique of his final years. The painting has been conserved with attention to the subtle tonal transitions in the landscape. The canvas has been relined for structural support.