Jupiter and Io

Jupiter, fickle in loves, falls in love with the beautiful Io. He seduces her and, in order to have her without arousing his wife Juno's suspicions, transforms himself into a cloud blanket that envelops the earth, thus being able to lie undisturbed with the maiden. Juno will discover yet another infidelity of the bridegroom and hurl her vengeance on the hapless concubine , leading her to experience interminable torments.

In this dialogue with the myth, suggested to me by Correggio, I imagined that Io might resist the god's advances, embodied by the blue streak of clouds and the looming hand, by rejecting the fate reserved for her, according to which she would be transmorphosed into a heifer, pursued by a gadfly and forced to wander the earth without end. Io here ascends seraphically, not passively accepting circumstances, but choosing to claim her own unquestionable right to be free of violence and to live her own life.

This work is a hymn to the perpetuation of change in the constant whirlwind of existence and represents a drive to find the courage to change and chart one's own path with one's own hands.