Helios on clouds 

Correggio made this drawing of Helios on clouds in Italy sometime in the early 16th century. It’s a sketch in black chalk, and its style is typical of the Italian Renaissance, taking ancient Greek and Roman culture as its model. But what was the social role of such mythological imagery at that time? Correggio was working in a world where the Catholic Church held enormous power, and the revival of pagan imagery was controversial. Artists of the time were navigating the politics of imagery. They used classical images like this one to explore new ideas about the human body and its potential, while not directly challenging religious doctrine. Helios, the sun god, is rendered with an idealized physique, celebrating human form. You might think about who had access to these images, and how they would have been viewed. Drawings like this were often made in preparation for larger paintings, and sometimes served as display pieces in their own right for elite collectors. To understand such an image, we might consider the artist’s biography, the patronage system of the time, or the prevailing philosophical ideas about the relationship between the human and the divine.