Jupiter and Callisto - François Boucher (1744)

Jupiter and Callisto is a 1744 painting by François Boucher, now in the Pushkin Museumin Moscow. It shows Jupiter disguised as Dianato seduce Callisto. Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” tells the story of the moon-goddess Diana’s favourite nymph Callisto, who was seduced by Jupiter in the form of the goddess herself. When Callisto’s pregnancy was discovered, Diana, who expected her followers to be as chaste as herself, punished Callisto by changing her into a bear and setting the dogs upon her. Callisto and her son Arcas were saved by Jupiter who transformed them into the constellations, the Great and the Little Bear.