65 - Jean-Baptiste OUDRY (1686–1755)

Jean-Baptiste OUDRY (1686–1755) Io Transformed into a Heifer, circa 1732 Black ink and white highlights on blue paper Collector’s stamp in the lower left corner 30.1 x 47.2 cm PROVENANCE: - Former Lamponi-Leopardi Collection, 19th century, “ERL” stamp in the lower left corner (L. 1760) - Sale of the Lamponi-Leopardi Collection, Milan, November 10–19, 1902, (auction director: Sambon) - Artcurial auction, April 9, 2008 - Private collection, Paris, acquired from the previous owner NOTE: Io, daughter of Inachios, the river god of the Argonides, is depicted here in the form of a heifer after Jupiter transformed her to conceal his transgression from Juno (Ovid, *Metamorphoses*, Book I). This drawing is a preparatory study for a Beauvais tapestry created in 1734, part of a series of eight subjects illustrating Ovid’s *Metamorphoses*. The tapestry was sold at Christie’s Paris on April 1, 2026 (lot 74), and the cartoon for this tapestry, dated 1732, was sold at Sotheby’s Paris on June 23, 2011 (lot 56), and later at Ader in Paris on March 21, 2023 (lot 9). Our composition is indeed Oudry’s initial concept for illustrating this scene: while the heifer, the peacock, Mercury’s attributes, and the wolf are all present, their arrangement is quite different from that of the tapestry cartoon or even the tapestry itself: the heifer’s head is turned toward the palace; Lycaon’s palace, situated on the right, occupies a less prominent position; Lycaon’s crown is absent, whereas it rests on the wolf’s head in the tapestry cartoon or is depicted on the ground in the woven version, and the foreground is dominated by a stream on which a swan is swimming.