Jupiter in the cloud

The most striking difference between the Vienna Danae and the Danaes of Naples and Madrid is the presence of Jupiter’s face in the cloud at the top edge of the picture (although the Madrid Danae also features an imposing cloud with lightening bolts and a strange golden glow).

Still the face here is obscured. The monarchs of the time are keen to find a godly counterpart; one seeing himself as Mars, another as Apollo and so on. The father of the gods however, is surely reserved for the most powerful monarch in Titian’s world: Hapsburg Philip II of Spain.