Chaperon's painting depicts the
childhood of Jupiter, the chief god of
Greek and Roman mythology. Jupiter's father Saturn had been warned that
one of his children would dethrone him, and took the precaution of
swallowing each child as it was born. Naturally his wife, Ops, was
displeased, and when Jupiter was born she hid the baby away and presented
a stone, wrapped in swaddling clothes, to her husband, who swallowed it
down without examining it closely. Jupiter was carried off to the island
of Crete, where he was brought up in secret by nymphs and fed on honey and
goat's milk. When he grew up Jupiter did indeed overthrow his father, and
administered an emetic that forced Saturn to disgorge the children he had
swallowed, alive and unharmed.
Chaperon shows the child Jupiter vigorously nursing at the udder of the
goat that a man restrains with some difficulty. Behind them a nymph takes
honey from a bee-hive and another plucks grapes from the vine clinging to
a tree. To the right a goatherd plays on a set of pipes, while in the
background a shepherd caresses his dog. There is no hint of the danger
that had threatened Jupiter; the whole scene suggests rustic peace and
plenty.
But why did this subject, suitable enough for a temple of Jupiter in
ancient Rome, appeal to Christian painters centuries after the end of the
old religion? Nicolas Poussin, the French master whose style Chaperon
closely imitated, painted the episode three times. At about the same time
the Flemish artist Jacob Jordaens produced at least four versions of the
story, including one in the Ackland's collection. For Jordaens, who
delighted in pictures of feasting and drinking, the hearty appetite of the
child may have been reason enough for making a picture. Indeed, Jordaens
had one of his paintings reproduced as a print with a Latin inscription
that turns the whole subject into a joke ("Why was Jupiter so promiscuous
a lover? Because he was raised on goat's milk and took on the nature of a
goat"). Poussin, a more intellectual artist than Jordaens, may have seen a
parallel between the mythological story of Jupiter and the biblical
story of the infant Moses which he also depicted several times -- both
babies are threatened with death, rescued and raised in secret, and
destined to greatness.
We know little about Chaperon, and nothing about the first owner of this
painting or the circumstances in which it was made. But in the 1640's,
when it was probably painted, its subject may have had still another
meaning for a French audience. In 1643 Louis XIV, a child of five, became
king of France at the death of his father. During the previous hundred
years France had experienced repeated political upheavals, including civil
war, and with a child on the throne the risk of instability in
the government was once again evident. In these circumstances Chaperon's
image of Jupiter as a childish but heroic ruler, deprived of a father but
nourished in an atmosphere of peace and security, could be seen both as
an expression of loyalty to the monarchy and as an optimistic picture of
the state of the nation.
