DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31769#0038
Winged shoes of Mercury
in the summer of 1482 after a good three years of ne-
gotiations. The mediator in this politically extremely
important wedding was Lorenzo the Magmficent, the
legal guardian of the groom, who was still a minor at
the time, and Lorenzo is regarded as the family member
who commissioned this work. 2? These circumstances
must now be taken into account in any interpretation of
this picture.
Painted in tempera on wood with a horizontal format
and measuring nearly seven-by-ten fèet (two-by-three
metres), this work is accepted today as the largest fif-
teenth-century panel paintmg with a mythological
theme. The work depicts a flower-filled meadow, a
shady grove in the background with numerous slender
trees, and nine figures including a putto floating above
the others in the centre. On the left of the composition
there is a young man wearing a red garment and a sword
on a strap at his left hip. In his raised right hand he is
holding a rod or wand. Next to him are three young
ladies wearing transparent gowns and holding each
others’ hands. In the centre of the picture there is an-
other, more modestly dressed, young woman who is lift-
ing her right hand in a strange gesture. The putto above
her is equipped with a bow and arrow, and he is blind-
folded. To the right of the central figure there is another
female figure who is steppmg forwards and wearing a
dress richly patterned with flowers. She is reaching into
a pile of blossoms that fill a fold in her dress. Next to
her is a young woman dressed in transparent white. She
seems to be walking towards the woman next to her, but
has her head turned to the figure on the far right of the
composition, evidently a man with puffed-out cheeks
who appears to be floating forwards out of the bushes
and trees in the middle ground.
37
in the summer of 1482 after a good three years of ne-
gotiations. The mediator in this politically extremely
important wedding was Lorenzo the Magmficent, the
legal guardian of the groom, who was still a minor at
the time, and Lorenzo is regarded as the family member
who commissioned this work. 2? These circumstances
must now be taken into account in any interpretation of
this picture.
Painted in tempera on wood with a horizontal format
and measuring nearly seven-by-ten fèet (two-by-three
metres), this work is accepted today as the largest fif-
teenth-century panel paintmg with a mythological
theme. The work depicts a flower-filled meadow, a
shady grove in the background with numerous slender
trees, and nine figures including a putto floating above
the others in the centre. On the left of the composition
there is a young man wearing a red garment and a sword
on a strap at his left hip. In his raised right hand he is
holding a rod or wand. Next to him are three young
ladies wearing transparent gowns and holding each
others’ hands. In the centre of the picture there is an-
other, more modestly dressed, young woman who is lift-
ing her right hand in a strange gesture. The putto above
her is equipped with a bow and arrow, and he is blind-
folded. To the right of the central figure there is another
female figure who is steppmg forwards and wearing a
dress richly patterned with flowers. She is reaching into
a pile of blossoms that fill a fold in her dress. Next to
her is a young woman dressed in transparent white. She
seems to be walking towards the woman next to her, but
has her head turned to the figure on the far right of the
composition, evidently a man with puffed-out cheeks
who appears to be floating forwards out of the bushes
and trees in the middle ground.
37