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Jupiter sends Mercury to slay Argus

workshop of Paulus Willemsz van Vianen (Utrecht c.1570 - Prague 1613)

Category

Art / Sculpture

Date

c. 1600 - 1620

Materials

Gilt bronze

Measurements

197 mm (7 ¾ in) Diameter

Place of origin

Prague

Order this image

Collection

Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset

NT 1255222.2

Summary

Sculpture, gilt-bronze; Jupiter sends Mercury to slay Argus; Paulus van Vianen (c. 1570-1613) and workshop; c. 1600-1620. One of a set of four gilt-bronze roundels featuring scenes from the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses, designed by the Utrecht-born silversmith Paulus van Vianen. Part of a series of at least twelve designs, which would have been used in objects made from silver such as shallow dishes (tazze), but were also reproduced in bronze and in lead. The four plaquettes now at Kingston Lacy possibly come from the large group of Netherlandish and German plaquettes recorded in the collection of King Charles I, in his Cabinet Room at Whitehall Palace, in 1638 or 1639.

Full description

A gilded bronze roundel depicting Jupiter sending Mercury to slay Argus. Argus is depicted as a young man, lying at right on a hillock in the foregrounds. He cradles his shepherd's crook, his bag and hat lie by his side, whilst on his other side stands his dog. At left is a heifer, representing Io transformed. In the sky, Jupiter is seated at right upon clouds, pointing with his staff down towards the heifer Io, holding thunderbolts in his other hand. Mercury is flying through the air and looking out towards the viewer, as he sets off on the mission with which he has been commanded by Jupiter. In the middle distance a man walks towards a group of buildings in the far distance. The front surface is entirely gilded. This relief, and its companion featuring Mercury holding the severed head of Argus, recount parts of the story of Jupiter’s transformation of Io, daughter of the King of Argos (Ovid’s Metamorphoses (I.587-747). They are part of a series of four plaquettes with scenes from this story. One of many nymphs whom he seduced, Jupiter transformed Io into a white heifer, in order to conceal her from the jealousy of his wife Juno. In the first relief in the sequence, Jupiter has just transformed Io into the heifer whilst Juno, seated in her chariot in the clouds, looks down angrily. Well aware of the real identity of the beautiful cow, she compelled her husband to present the animal to her, giving it to her servant Argus to guard. Argus was a giant known in Greek as ‘Panoptes’ (‘all-seeing’), said to have one hundred eyes, so able to keep a constant watch in every direction. Jupiter’s response was to send the god Mercury to earth to despatch Argus. Having eventually succeeded in sending the watchful Argus to sleep by telling the story of Pan and Syrinx and piping a melody to him, as seen in the third relief, Mercury then decapitated Argus (see 1255222.4). Juno took the giant’s hundred eyes, setting them into the tail of her peacock as a memorial to her faithful watchman (some versions of the story also suggest that Argus was transformed into a peacock). With his death, Io was nevertheless liberated. She henceforth wandered the earth as a cow, although she is said to have been constantly tormented by a gadfly sent by Juno. The four reliefs are a faithful telling of the story of Io. The one major deviation is the depiction, with understandable artistic licence, of Argus not as a many-eyed monstrous giant, but as a lithe young man. The learned audiences for whom Paulus van Vianen made these reliefs would also have spotted the prominent role that he gives in these reliefs to Argus’s dog, seen howling in the horrific final plaque. Argus was the name of the faithful dog of Ulysses (Odysseus), the only creature to recognise its master when he finally returned to Ithaca from the Trojan war. The four gilt-bronze circular reliefs at Kingston Lacy all illustrate episodes from the Roman poet Ovid’s long poem ‘Metamorphoses’, which became a very popular source for artists, composers and writers from the Renaissance period onwards. All the stories in the Metamorphoses concern transformations of gods and other individuals in mythology. The set at Kingston Lacy is just part of a larger series of at least twelve large circular plaques with episodes from the Metamorphoses. The larger series included four scenes from the story of Jupiter, Juno and Io (including 1255222.2 and 4) and another four from the story of the sun god Phoebus and the death of his son Phaethon. Finally, two scenes from the story of Jupiter, Juno and Callisto survive, as well as the two from the story of Apollo, Cupid and the nymph Daphne (see 1255222.1 and 3). It is possible that other lost scenes from these stories once existed. For discussion of the series and the attribution to Paulus van Vianen, see NT 1255222.1. All the plaquettes are extremely rare, most surviving in just one or two examples in bronze or in lead, whilst others are e only known through documentary references. There are currently two other known versions of Jupiter sending Mercury to slay Argus, in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, both in lead. A third cast formerly in the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin was lost during the Second World War. The design was re-used, with the other three from the story of Io, on a large dish in the Frisian Museum, Leeuwarden (Frederiks 1952, no. 183) by Rintie Jans (fl. 1646 – after 1673). Jeremy Warren May 2023

Provenance

First recorded In the 1860 inventory drawn up by Rosa Louisa Bankes (1827-1878); by descent; bequeathed by (Henry John) Ralph Bankes (1902-1981), together with the estates of Corfe Castle and Kingston Lacy and its entire contents

Makers and roles

workshop of Paulus Willemsz van Vianen (Utrecht c.1570 - Prague 1613) , sculptor after Paulus Willemsz van Vianen (Utrecht c.1570 - Prague 1613) , original artist

References

Verres 1928: Rudolf Verres, ‘Die Plaketten des Paulus van Vianen’, Pantheon, 1 (1928), pp. 291-299, p. 294, Abb.8. Amsterdam 1952: Catalogus van Goud en Zilverwerken, benevens zilveren, loden en bronzen Plaquetten, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 1952, no. 437. Frederiks 1952: J.W. Frederiks, Dutch Silver. I. Embossed Plaquettes, Tazze and Dishes from the Renaissance until the end of the eighteenth century, The Hague 1952, no.81X. Weber 1975: Ingrid Weber, Deutsche, Niederländische und Französische Renaissanceplaketten 1500-1650, 2 vols., Munich 1975, no.948.2, Taf.267. Ter Molen 1984: J.R. ter Molen, ‚Van Vianen: een Utrechtse familie van zilversmeden met een internationale faam‘, PhD Dissertation, 2 vols., Leiderdorp 1984, no. 128. Lightbown 1989: Ronald Lightbown, 'Charles I and the Art of the Goldsmith’, in ed. A. MacGregor, The Late King’s Goods. Collections, Possessions and Patronage of Charles I, London/Oxford 1989, pp. 233-255, pp. 237-238, fig.77. Warren 2014: Jeremy Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 3 vols., Oxford 2014, no. 477.

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