Jupiter Taking Counsel from the Gods about the Destruction of the Universe

Jupiter sits enthroned on the upper left, gesturing as he addresses a large gathering of deities seated upon the clouds. Identifiable gods including Mercury with his caduceus, Neptune with his trident, and a radiant Apollo look on as the king of the gods decrees a global deluge. In the background below the clouds, a tiny, detailed landscape shows the mortal world that is marked for destruction.

This work illustrates a key scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses, a text that served as a primary source for Renaissance allegorical and Neoplatonic interpretations of the cosmos. The theme of a periodic world-destruction (diluvium) relates to Stoic and Hermetic concepts of cosmic cycles and the divine purification of the material realm.