THE ROOM OF MERCURY AND ARGUS

The walls of this room are decorated with the protagonists of the myth of Mercury and Argus, as told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses.

The story begins with the scene depicted on the eastern wall, where it is possible to discern two of the main characters: the god Jupiter and his wife Juno.

Jupiter, caught by Juno in the act of seducing the nymph Io, tried to hide his infidelity by enveloping the Earth in a blanket of clouds, but the goddess ordered them to dissolve. The god then, in an attempt to protect the maiden, turned her into a white heifer. Having sensed his deception, Juno asked Jupiter for the heifer as a gift and, unable to refuse her, he was forced to comply: this way, the goddess was able to achieve what she desired.

The fresco depicts the exact moment when Juno convinces Zeus to gift her the animal; in fact, it is still possible to make out the white heifer’s head, on the edge of the gap in the fresco’s paint layer.

Argus, the hundred-eyed guardian, was asked to keep Io in custody. The Olympian god, then, entrusted his son Mercury with the nymph’s rescue; once transformed into a shepherd, he began to play Pan’s syringe to lull the guardian to sleep and, once he closed his many eyes, he proceeded to brutally murder him.

The fresco portrays Mercury putting Argus to sleep by playing the syringe while, by their side, the white nymph-heifer waits, crouching. The messenger of the gods is only recognizable by his helmet, the petasos. Behind them, the landscape is dotted with huts and displays what looks like a castle of clear Nordic inspiration.

The myth continues, narrating that, after finding the guardian’s lifeless body, Juno took Argus’ eyes and applied them to the tail of the peacock, an animal sacred to her. Finally, the goddess agreed to release Io from her punishment: once she regained her usual appearance, she went to the banks of the river Nile, and gave birth to Epaphus, son of Jupiter.

It is not yet known if the fresco on the northern wall once represented the final moments of the story, but it is possible to note the curious presence of a vine shoot in the lower left corner.

Coming through the illusionistic door painted on the southern wall, is a North African house staff member, who offers those the visitors a golden jug: the theme of optical deception (or trompe-l’oeil) crosses the entire history of art, beginning from the Greek-Roman world.
Here the fictive architectural frame is dominated by gigantic golden herms which divided the painted scenes. They ideally hold the cornice functioning as Telamons (male figures) and Caryatids (female figures). In the classical world, these figures were used as structural or decorative supports in place of columns or half pilasters: their presence in the villas decorations is attributable to the ancient world’s concepts of strength and power. (Barbara Maria Savy, Sara Danese | trad. Anna Dal Pont, Sarah Ferrari)