Lot Essay
‘La Ceinture de Venus’: Jupiter and Juno on Mount Ida is among the most charming and beautiful of Antoine Coypel’s mythological cabinet pictures: learned yet light-hearted, sensual and brilliantly colored in a rich, jewel-like palette derived from the artist’s deep study of Rubens. Coypel’s source is Book XIV of Homer’s epic poem, the Iliad. Jupiter was the supreme ruler of the gods and mortals, the most exalted – and promiscuous – of the Olympian deities. Juno, his vengeful wife, was long consumed with hatred for the city of Troy after Paris, the Trojan prince, awarded Venus the Golden Apple to honor her superior beauty. Determined to thwart Jupiter’s support for the Trojans in their battle against Greece, Juno persuaded Hypnos, the god of Sleep, to seal Jupiter’s eyes. Next, she deceived Venus, goddess of Love, into lending her the goddess’s magical breast-band (or girdle), in order to bewitch the faithless Jupiter into once again desiring his wife. Bathed, perfumed and seductively dressed, Juno went to Mount Ida – her husband’s sacred retreat – where she found Jupiter enthroned. Upon first sight of her, Jupiter was ravished with Juno’s beauty, sank into her embrace, made love to her enveloped in a cloud of gold and fell asleep. Afterward, Hypnos informed Neptune, god of the Sea, that Jupiter was asleep, freeing him to destroy Troy’s fleet.
Coypel’s painting illustrates the tale with wit, economy and grace. Atop Mount Ida, the beautiful Juno – bedecked in pearls, jewels, fine silks and the magic girdle around her waist – glances slyly at the besotted Jupiter, who enfolds her in his muscular arms. An eagle, traditional symbol of Jupiter, perches between the celestial couple and, looking approvingly at Juno, treads upon the thunderbolt that the god employs to vanquish his enemies. Juno’s attribute, the peacock, flies overhead, gazing to earth at two winged putti who joyfully ignite the flame of each other’s torch. A cloud of gold descends on the gods to enfold them.
Coypel’s painting was first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1699, with a pendant depicting Venus Giving Arms to Aeneas (lost), perhaps illustrating the theme of the power of women over men. Although not recorded in the Salon livret, it is likely that the present painting was acquired by the Duc d’Orléans, Palais Royale, since its lost pendant was inventoried in the Orléans Collection as late as 1790. Two studies for the present composition in trois crayons and rapidly sketched in Coypel’s characteristically scratchy hand are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the Louvre, respectively. The picture was engraved in reverse by Gaspard Duchange and dedicated to Jules Hardouin-Mansart, ‘Surintendant des Bâtiments’ with the appropriate verse from the Iliad in French translation beneath the print. Several copies of the painting are known, including a larger, vertical copy (178 x 153 cm.) that was seized during the Revolution and deposited in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes, where it remains, along with a copy of Venus Giving Arms to Aeneas executed in the same extended, upright format.