Jupiter and Callisto

François Boucher's Jupiter and Callisto of 1744 depicts Zeus's seduction of the nymph Callisto — the king of the gods disguised as the goddess Diana to overcome the huntress's vow of chastity — a subject that allowed Boucher to paint a same-sex erotic scene within the protective frame of mythology. The painting's explicit suggestion of lesbian desire concealed within divine disguise exemplifies the sophisticated eroticism of Rococo mythological painting, where classical precedent provided cover for the aristocratic libertinism that characterized Louis XV's court culture.

Boucher renders the two figures with luminous, pearly flesh tones in a lush woodland setting. The soft, decorative palette and the elegant intertwining of the bodies exemplify the refined eroticism of the French Rococo at its most accomplished.