Jupiter en Ganymedes 1724

This print by Giovanni Antonio Faldoni depicts Jupiter, king of the gods, and the Trojan youth Ganymede. Jupiter, adorned with a garland of leaves, gazes fondly at Ganymede, who carries his shepherd's flute. The myth of Ganymede has echoed through the ages: a symbol of idealized male beauty and the complexities of power and desire. Ganymede's abduction by Jupiter, often portrayed with an eagle—Jupiter's avatara—links to older myths of the soul's ascent to divine realms. Consider how this narrative contrasts with religious artworks where ascent is an honor, whereas the Greeks saw it as fraught with danger. Like the serpent that winds through depictions of the Fall, the eagle and the garland here suggest the ambiguous line between mortal and divine, seduction and transcendence, in a dance of shared meanings. This echoes in Botticelli's Venus, where the goddess emerges, reborn. In both, the motif of ascent speaks to the eternal, cyclical nature of human experience and memory.