Mercury and Argus in a Landscape (c. 1635): Art, History and Details

Mercury and Argus in a Landscape (c. 1635) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Dirck van der Lisse (Dutch, 1669).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This painting depicts a scene from ancient myth. The queen of the gods, Juno, jealous of her husband Jupiter's affair with Io, changed the mortal woman into a cow. Juno then ordered Argus - a giant with many eyes - to watch over Io constantly. In response, Zeus sent Mercury, the god of deception, to free Io. Mercury lulled Argus to sleep by playing the flute, then killed him and released the cow. The artist set the scene in a landscape with classical ruins. The expansive vista belongs to an earlier tradition that evokes the immenseness of the world through panoramic views, offering the suggestion of boundless space.

Object facts

• Title: Mercury and Argus in a Landscape
• Date: c. 1635
• Creator attribution: Dirck van der Lisse (Dutch, 1669)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on copper
• Dimensions: Framed: 62 x 79 x 7 cm (24 7/16 x 31 1/8 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 37 x 49.2 cm (14 9/16 x 19 3/8 in.)
• Collection: P - Netherlandish-Dutch
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1989.248

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Severance A. Millikin

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.