Ixion

Ixion is a 1632 oil painting, signed and dated by Jusepe de Ribera. It shows a scene from Classical mythology, of Ixion being tortured as the eternal punishment meted out by Zeus. It is one of a series of four paintings by Ribera of the four "Furies" or "Condemned" from Greek mythology. It is held by the Museo del Prado in Madrid, along with Ribera's painting of Tityos; the other two, of Sisyphus and Tantalus, are lost. Background Ixion was king of the Lapiths and later father of the Centaurs. He was outlawed after murdering his father in law Deioneus. Pardoned by Zeus, he was welcomed to Mount Olympus, but betrayed Zeus's hospitality by trying to seduce his host's wife Hera. As punishment, Zeus sentenced Ixion to be tied to a perpetually turning wheel of fire in Tartaros. Titian made a similar series of four paintings in 1548–1549 for Binche Palace, the residence of Mary of Hungary in the Habsburg Netherlands, where Mary was Governor for 24 years. On her death in 1558, the series was inherited by Philip II of Spain, and displayed at the Royal Alcázar of Madrid, where they may have influenced Ribera's similar series. Titian's Ixion and Tantalus were lost in the catastrophic fire at the Royal Alcázar in 1734, but the Prado holds Titian's Sisyphus and Tityus (although the Tityus is believed to be a later version by Titian dated to c. 1565, and not the 1540s original). The composition of Titian's lost painting of Tantalus is known from engravings by . Joachim Sandrart wrote in 1675 that Ribera had painted an earlier series of four paintings of the Furies, similar to Titian's series, for Lucas van Uffelen, which Van Uffelen rejected because his wife found them unsettling. The original versions by Ribera are lost, but the series is known from later copies in the Museo del Prado.