Palazzo Schifanoia, north wall, month of June: above “Triumph of Mercury”. The chariot is pulled by black swans.This divinity was traditionally placed to protect trade, as documented by the presence, on the right and on the left, of merchants wearing precious clothes. The reference is strengthened by the presence of the lifeless body of Argus who was beheaded by Mercury himself on behalf of Jupiter in order to free Io, the nymph transformed into a mare by Juno (as narrated by Ovid in the Metamorphoses).Frescoes attributed to Ercole de' Roberti or to the so-called wide-eyed Master (1468-1470).
