Jupiter

   The god of gods, Jupiter is the ruler of heaven and Earth. In his infancy, he was hidden so his father Saturn would not devour him and was nurtured by the goat Amalthea, a scene sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1615 (Rome, Galleria Borghese). As an adult, he battled his father, defeated him, and established order in the cosmos. The giants rose up against him, but Jupiter defeated them and cast them to the underworld, the scene depicted in Perino del Vaga's Fall of the Giants (c. 1529) in the Palazzo del Principe, Genoa, and Giulio Romano's (1530-1532) in the Palazzo del Tè, Mantua. Juno became Jupiter's consort, yet, for him, fidelity to her was not a priority. He was notorious for his many affairs and illegitimate children. He appeared to Danaë in the form of a gold shower, to Leda as a swan, and to Europa as a bull. He fathered Apollo with Letona, Proserpina with Ceres, and Bacchus with Semele. His many loves are common subjects in art. Correggio alone painted Jupiter and Ganymede, Jupiter and Io (both 1530s; Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum), and Jupiter and Danaë (c. 1531; Rome, Gallería Borghese). Titian (1554; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) and Jan Gossart (1527; Munich, Alte Pinakothek) also rendered his indiscretion with Danaë, and Paolo Veronese painted the Rape of Europa (1580; Venice, Doge's Palace).