Antonio da Correggio: Danae
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – March 5, 1534), usually known as Correggio, was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sensuous works of the 16th century. In his use of dynamic composition, illusionistic perspective and dramatic foreshortening, Correggio prefigured the Rococo art of the 18th century.

And: The work was commissioned by the Duke of Mantua Federico II Gonzaga, as a part of a series portraying Jupiter's loves, perhaps destined to the Ovid Hall in the Palazzo Te of Mantua. After Federico's death it went to Spain. The painting portrays the Greek mythological figure Danaë, the daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos. After an oracle forecasted that she would be killed by her son, he had her jailed in a bronze tower. However, as told by the Roman poter Ovid in his Metamorphoses, Jupiter reached her in the form of a gold rain and made her mother to Perseus.

Correggio portrays Danaë lying on a bed, while a child Eros undresses her as gold rains from a cloud. At the foot of the bed, two putti are testing against a stone gold and leda arrows.