Jupiter and Io

The nymph Io swoons backward in ecstasy, embraced by Jupiter, who has poured himself into a soft grey cloud - a shadowy face and a dim hand emerge from the mist to kiss and enfold her. Correggio makes the invisible god almost palpable and the eroticism extraordinarily tender, the flesh dissolving into vapor. It is among the most sensuous images of the entire Renaissance. One of the Loves of Jupiter painted for Federico Gonzaga, it joins Correggio's Danae and Leda, the god's other seductions, also in this collection.