"Jupiter and Io," Antonio de Correggio, 1520-40.

Correggio (1489-1534) was an Italian High Renaissance painter known for his very sensual and suggestive works, and for prefiguring the Baroque style. Despite his rather louche reputation, he also did a large number of religious works.

This particular work was one of a series of paintings that interpreted various liaisons of the god Jupiter, as taken from Ovid's "Metamorphises," and all were quite sensual and erotic. They were commissioned by Frederico II of Gonzaga, then ruler of Mantua, but were given to the Holy Roman Emperor, possibly under duress.

The image is unabashedly erotic, to the point that later artists would sometimes paint a miniature version in a room to indicate that the owner was a prostitute or other person of loose morals.

Correggio died young; reportedly he was a lonely, introverted man; little is known of his early life or training, and there are no records of a marriage or children. The passionate sensuality of his works hint at quite an inner life, though.

From the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

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