Mercury and Argus

Mercury and Argus is an etching created by Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée) in 1662. This particular impression of the work represents the third and final state of the plate, as documented in print cataloging (Mannocci). Lorrain, renowned as the preeminent master of the idealized classical landscape in the 17th-century Baroque tradition, often translated his complex compositions into the medium of the etching process, allowing his designs to be widely disseminated among collectors.

The composition depicts the mythological episode detailed in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The scene features Mercury, the messenger of the gods, who is shown disguised as a simple shepherd. He has arrived to free Io, the priestess whom the jealous goddess Juno had transformed into a white heifer and placed under the vigilant guard of Argus Panoptes, the hundred-eyed giant. The sweeping Landscape setting, characteristic of Lorrain’s style, dominates the foreground and background, providing a carefully balanced stage for the narrative.

Lorrain subtly integrates the subject tags: Argus sits prominently in the foreground, seemingly entranced by Mercury's music, surrounded by the grazing Cows (Io). Mercury prepares to strike the giant once all hundred eyes are finally closed in sleep. Even in the smaller scale afforded by the print medium, Lorrain showcases his mastery of atmospheric effects, using the delicate line work of the etching to define the distance and light. This important impression of the 1662 work is held within the renowned collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a significant work from the public domain, high-quality reproductions of this masterwork are widely used for study and reference globally, cementing Lorrain's legacy as a leading master of classical landscapes.