Jupiter and Io

In the foreground, a muscular Jupiter embraces Io amidst swirling, stylized clouds intended to conceal their tryst from his wife, Juno. The background features a simultaneous narrative where Juno descends from the heavens in a peacock-drawn chariot to investigate the suspicious darkness. A third scene reveals Jupiter standing beside the newly transformed white cow, attempting to deceive Juno as she arrives on the scene.

As part of Goltzius's illustrations for Ovid's Metamorphoses, this work reflects the Renaissance obsession with 'mutatio rerum' (the mutation of things), a concept central to both Neoplatonic thought and alchemical theory regarding the shifting states of matter and soul. The use of 'densa caligine' (dense mist) to represent divine concealment was a common trope in early modern natural philosophy to describe the veil between the visible world and the hidden operations of the gods or nature.