Mercury and Herse

Mercury and Erses is a painting of 57.8 × 69.2 cm, made by the Dutch painter Gerard Hoet.

The scene represented is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses and is rendered in a finely decorative way by the artist. It shows Mercury, identified by winged feet, helmet and caduceus, who looking at Erse, returning from a celebration in honor of Minerva, falls in love with her.

The representation is characterized by the arrival on stage of the main part of the figures in a procession that goes up around the corner. The flow of figures disappears into the distance, thus creating the illusion of a much larger crowd than the visible one. In this sense the painting has similarities with the painting Paris presents Helen at the court of King Priam.

Also again in Mercury and Erse, Hoet portrays some figures in unusual positions, such as the man fatigued under the weight of heavy baskets, the man climbing the fountain, or Mercury himself flying over the scene.